Of Gods and Men

Chapters

A.D. 2563 - Eye of the Needle
C.E. 1001 - Not Alone
C.E. 1001 - Light of the World
C.E. 1001 - The Kingdom
C.E. 1001 - Behold My Wonders
A.D. 2563 - Guardian Angel

A.D. 2563 - Eye of the Needle

Author's Note

The following Chapter may contain much more science fiction than science fact. Please alert me to anything ridiculously incorrect, and I'll fix it as long as it doesn't ruin the story.

A.D. 2563 - Eye of the Needle

Titus Andronicus Slater loved space. It was a harsh place, full of radiation, lacking in resources, and incredibly dark. Most humans preferred planets or even asteroids, those minuscule islands in the vast sea of the universe. But not Titus. He signed up for the Earth United Planets Navy at the age of seventeen, lured by promises of space travel and galactic exploration. And the promises had held true. In the six years so far of EUPN Enduring Spirit's ten year voyage, Petty Officer Second Class Slater had seen countless millions of miles of space, viewed planets and star systems, and even jumped through two wormholes. For that was the real purpose of Enduring Spirit's voyage: to map and explore unexplored wormholes in the Milky Way Galaxy. Since the capability to travel through wormholes had been discovered, humanity had spread much farther across the universe than previously possible, and wormholes were the key to most interstellar trade.

Though the EUPN was a military organization, none of the various interstellar systems had fought a war for 132 years. This was good news for Titus, because, though not a pacifist, he did not support war. Though like every other EUPN recruit he was trained in battle procedures, almost no one ever expected to use them. As it was, Enduring Spirit was carrying the minimum required armament for a military vessel its size: 2 antimatter torpedoes and two light weight particle cannons. Not even enough weapons to destroy a ship of equal size and equipment.

Though most crew members found the long stretches of dark and silence unbearably boring, Titus had very small expectations of entertainment. He found a simple joy in repairing the training simulators, rewiring the lights in Meeting Room 5, and fixing that one holopanel on Recreation Deck 2 that always short circuited. He even found wonder in gazing out the rear Observation Deck at the vast expanse of cosmic dust that made up space.

"Petty Officer Slater!" called Senior Chief Petty Officer Mariette Bonfils "One of the menu screens in the Mess is glitched. I want you to go fix it."

"Yes Ma'am."

"Good." she replied as Titus left the Electronics Bay where he was stationed and took the nearest elevator to the level the Mess was on. It was a simple task, one that any decent robot could do, but all the electrical repair bots were busy, and due to emergency protocol, at least one tenth of all EUPN repair units had to be humans. Titus sometimes felt unnecessary, but despite the advances in robotics, machines were still nowhere near as creative as humans.

Titus was just returning to the Electronics Bay when a quiet alarm sounded throughout the ship. "Prepare for wormhole traversal, T-15 minutes. Repeat: Prepare for wormhole traversal, T-15 minutes." a female-sounding electronic voice said in monotone. Titus, Senior Chief Bonfils, and the other three human electronics engineers began standard wormhole traversal procedures. Wormhole jumps weren't exactly risky, but they were dangerous enough to warrant additional precautions. For most "flat" wormholes, ships traversing the wormhole only had data on a small cone in front of the ship. Objects to the side or behind the wormhole were effectively invisible, so ship pilots were flying half blind during jumps.

The vastness of space aids in wormhole traversals. Because most space is empty, the odds of there being "invisible objects" on the other side of the wormhole are extremely low. Unfortunately for Enduring Spirit, an object of significant size rested on the other side of this one.

As soon as the ship completed traversal, Titus immediately knew some thing was wrong. Horribly wrong. Gravity had shifted, Titus felt a small force towards the rear of the ship and down. A split second later, the alarms began blaring.

"Imminent collision detected! All personnel report to lifeboat stations immediately! This is not a Drill!"

"What the hell is going on?" shouted one of the engineers.

Senior Chief Bonfils was staring at a nearby screen with a look of horror on her face. "We appeared between a planet and its moon. Autopilot programs indicate the ship can't escape the planet's gravity well. We are too close to the planet, and though the moon is currently pulling us in the opposite direction, it won't be in a few hours. You hear the alarm, MOVE!"

Every crew member ran for the nearest lifeboat station. Crew members ran everywhere, some evacuating, some unfortunate enough to be part of the skeleton crew trying to keep the ship intact long enough for everyone to escape.

"Imminent collision detected! All personnel report to lifeboat stations immediately! This is not a Drill!" continued to repeat in its monotone voice.

Suddenly, the warning was cut short, and an actual voice came on the ship's intercom. "The planet's moon has commenced rather rapid acceleration without explanation. Estimated time to entering atmosphere is six minutes at current rate. Advised beginning Lifeboat launches immediately."

Crew members filed rapidly into the 40 person lifeboats at Titus' station. Boat J1 was filled quickly, and with the shutting of airlock doors and a jet of hydrogen, the boat was gone. Titus was assigned to Boat J3, which was half full already.

"Warning! Lunar acceleration has continued to increase. Estimated impact with atmosphere: T-2 minutes." Crew members began panicking. Years of no war and little real danger had softened the Navy, and one frantic lifeboat pilot sealed Lifeboat J3's doors and commenced the launch sequence. Those still stuck on the ship pounded on the Airlock to no avail: the Lifeboat launched into space with only 27 people on it.

Titus wasted no time. He knew where most of the 3 man emergency escape pods were located. The ones on the main decks were probably taken already, but there were two on a lower maintenance deck that might not have been.

"Dear God, please let one of those pods still be there." Titus prayed as he sprinted to the nearest elevator and pressed the button for the maintenance level.

As the elevator doors opened, Titus sprinted down the halls toward the Port side pod. He reached a locked Airlock, the pod already launched.

"Crap. Let the other still be here." Titus said, running to the Starboard side.

"30 seconds to impact. All personnel evacuate immediately, or brace for impact." Titus felt almost superhuman strength come over him as adrenaline rushed through his body, the will to survive pushing him towards his only hope of survival. Up ahead, the escape pod airlock was open, no one was inside.

"Thank G-" Titus was cut off as sudden deceleration threw him off the floor, into the ceiling. The ringing alarms went out, replaced by the ringing in Titus' head and what sounded eerily like bending metal. Though Titus was stunned from the impact, he tried to stand, but failed. Weakly, he crawled towards the pod only 10 feet away. The lights in the ship went out, leaving Titus in darkness. Metal rent as the ship was pulled apart by gravity and air resistance, and air began rushing past Titus, out some hole in the ship. He finally pulled himself into the pod, and locked the doors. There was no time to strap himself in. He pressed the launch sequence override button, and as the pod jettisoned away from the ship, he lost consciousness...

C.E. 1001 - Not Alone

Titus Andronicus Slater awoke in extreme pain. He tried to open his eyes, but only his left eye would open. He was still in the escape pod, but it was now covered in blood. He tried to get into the chair, but as he moved, his right leg burst into extreme pain. It felt like it was on fire. He looked down to see a piece of bone protruding from his shin.

Titus almost fainted. He pulled himself together. Reaching out his right arm, he fumbled with the first aid kit box on the wall of the pod. He grabbed several items at random, because from the floor he couldn't see inside the box. Several items fell to the floor. Titus quickly located a nano-med injector and inserted the tip into his thigh. The pain almost instantly died down, and his leg stopped bleeding.

Titus lay there, tired due to his blood loss. He could feel the pod gently moving up and down. "Is it in my head? Or am I... floating?" Titus spoke aloud. He fumbled with the pod's controls and brought up a video from the outer cameras. "It's... It's an ocean..." he said as he fell into sleep's embrace.

Titus awoke. According to the pod's clock it had been 9 hours and 36 minutes since he was last awake. The view outside the pod was much the same, except it was now almost sundown, rather than late morning. Wait, this planet has a yellow sun? And days close to twenty-four hours long? This can't be Earth, can it? Titus thought. No, all the wormholes near earth have been explored. This must be like Earth... the mythical like-Earth Planet that no one could ever find. If he survived, he could become famous. This was the explorer's find of the century.

Titus rummaged around in the first aid supplies. After self-medicating, he looked under the pod seat for the survival kit, opened it, and took stock. It was stocked for three people, so there was about 21 weeks of food available. He had a Xion Corporation Flare Gun with 6 flares, a multi-shot electric stun gun, a large but compact tent, 6 one-size-fits-all jump suits, a folding solar oven, a clock/thermometer/barometer and a combination shovel/hatchet. The pod featured a comm system, solar panels and a small computer containing an encyclopedia database.

Titus ate, while trying to hail any other pods or lifeboats that may have landed. The pod picked up a lifeboat distress beacon, strong enough to be on this planet, and coming almost due west (a direction based on the planet's rotation, not on it's magnetic field). After an hour of trying to contact the lifeboat, Titus gave up. Night was falling, but he wasn't very tired. He had just woken up. and the meds were keeping him awake.

As night fell, something began to appear on the screens. Is that... Light? It looks like city lights... in the distance Titus stared intently at the screen. As time went by, the lights grew closer and brighter, till it became apparent they were indeed artificial lights. Perhaps it's some other surviving crew members, and they set up a camp.

Some time later, the pod had drifted close enough that Titus could make out a shore, dry land. It was also apparent that some of the lights emanated from rather tall buildings. There's no way a lifeboat group could have set those up. This planet must be populated... but this was an unexplored wormhole. Suddenly, thoughts of alien races ran through his head. Titus did not believe aliens existed, at least not in this universe, and in all of humanity's existence, not a single sapient alien life-form had ever been found. Nevertheless, given the circumstances, there was an equal chance that this planet was populated with aliens as with humans. This might be a discovery even bigger than an Earth-like planet...

It was about midnight as Titus' pod approached the Harbor. For that is what it clearly was, with docks and ships, and skyscrapers. Titus had tried to reset his leg (which was immensely painful) and put a splint on it. Using a metal pole, he was able to stand up and access the top hatch of the pod. He carefully opened it, and hauled himself up. He pulled out the flare gun, and fired one shot into the air as he approached the harbor.

A loud boom echoed across the water, and a brilliant flash illuminated the whole area near his pod. The flash almost blinded him, but for a brief second he caught sight of something rather odd. Was that a... no, my eyes are playing tricks on me.

An object that appeared to be a boat approached the pod. Titus began calling out for help in every language he knew, which wasn't much because he only spoke English and French fluently. The boat (it was clearly a boat now) grew closer, and Titus heard someone call out to him in a language he did not understand.

"Over here! Hey! Aidez moi!" Titus called out. Suddenly, he was surrounded with a curious sensation, and felt himself lifted out of the pod. "What the? Hey!" What on Earth? Is this some new tractor beam technology or something? Titus was levitated over to the boat, and deposited gently on the deck.

Praise God, I'm alive. "Hey, thanks for helping me. I-" Titus turned and stopped cold when he saw several multicolored horses looking at him.

"Ingabe ukhuluma Equish? Ngabe uzizwa kanjani?" said the closest horse, which appeared to be a unicorn.

"Uh... Aliens..." Titus fainted.

Author's Note

Just so you know, the language the ponies speak at the end is actually Zulu (for which I used Google Translate), not Equish (does anyone know if someone actually made an Equish language? That would be so cool).

C.E. 1001 - Light of the World

"How is it?" Princess Celestia asked the nurse in the Manehattan General Hospital waiting room.

"It has a broken leg, a concussion, some moderate bruising on the face, and two sprained ankles, but other than that, it's doing fine." replied the unicorn nurse, while reading through charts on a clipboard.

"Good. I would prefer to see one of these creatures alive, unlike the ones we found near the Crystal Empire." Celestia said. "Please ensure that it gets the best care possible."

"Of course, Princess." the nurse said quickly.

"One more thing: have you been able to make contact with it yet?" Celestia asked.

"No. It's apparently been unconscious since it was found in the Harbor."

"Contact me as soon as it wakes up. I will be in my room at the Ditz Hotel." Celestia said as she trotted away.

No sooner had she left the hospital than a pegasus Royal Guard flew up to her, landing on the ground and bowing. "Your Majesty, we have recovered the vessel the creature was floating in. It is on Dock 13 right now."

"Really? I shall have to examine it. Lead the way."

"As you command, milady." The Guard flew off in the direction of the dock, Celestia flying not far behind.

When they arrived at Dock 13, Celestia dismissed the Guard and trotted over to the rather large crowd gathered there. Somepony spotted her and exclaimed "Princess Celestia!" instantly, everypony bowed, and some moved out of the way for Celestia to come near the object of examination. In the middle of the crowd, several scientists were examining a large metal object, while the Guards kept onlookers a few feet away.

"So, what is it?" Celestia asked, curious.

"Well... we don't know, your highness," replied Bill Neigh, the chief scientist of the group. "But it doesn't appear to be a boat, and it's much smaller than the one we found near the Crystal Empire. This one appears built for only three of the creatures."

"Have you seen the other two then?"

"Uh... No. The one that was taken to the hospital is the only one found in this vessel. We believe it may have been the only one."

"So, what else have you learned?" Celestia inquired "Anything that might be beneficial to know?"

"Well, we found what appears to be packaged food..." said Mr. Neigh "but..." His voice dropped to a whisper. "It appears some of the food is meat."

Celestia nodded. It was somewhat unexpected, but not really surprising. "But the other food? Is it plants?"

"Well... yes. Some of it appears to be plant matter, or plant based products. Some of it we are not sure about, however. Like this white powder here. We don't know what it is." the scientist said hesitantly.

"So the creature is an omnivore." Celestia said, thinking of how they would feed the creature when it awoke. "It will have to subsist on a solely plant based diet for now. Save whatever of that food you can. The creature might need it."

"Also, your highness, this craft is very strange. There are parts of the vessels hull on the inside, which show the outside part as if it were really there. It appears to be magical, but our unicorns can not sense any magic in the craft. And there are other strange items as well, which we haven't figured out how to use yet."

"I fear we will not have many answers until the creature has awoken." Celestia remarked.

Titus awoke in a bed. A real bed, not one of those bunks they had on Enduring Spirit.

Where am I? Titus thought. He looked around, and saw what appeared to be a hospital waiting room. He was lying in a bed, his leg bandaged and tied to some sort of splint. He looked around to see an orange horse... well, unicorn actually, staring at a clipboard intently. The weird part, however, was the fact that the clipboard was levitating in some sort of blue field. Oh, that's right. ALIENS. Memories of everything that happened earlier flooded back, and Titus felt gripped with fear. He tried to calm himself. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil... Wait, these aliens can't be that evil, right? I mean, they didn't kill me. And they took me to a hospital. It can't be that bad. Slowly, his heart rate returned to normal. He took a deep breath, turned to the unicorn, and said "HELLO. MY NAME IS TITUS SLATER. I AM A HUMAN."

"Oh, wena siphapheme. Ingabe nawe uzizwa kulungile?" the unicorn said. After a few seconds of silence, the unicorn must have figured out Titus didn't speak its language, so it said "I kumele azise umbusi wethu Celestia" and left the room.

Titus waited, contemplating his fate. He was on an alien planet, severely injured, and was unable to communicate with anyone, not with humans because they weren't here, and not with these... whatever they were because they didn't speak either English or French. Things could be worse. He could be in one of those prison camps he had read about in Old Earth History class.

Presently a tall horse, about twice the size of any Titus had yet seen, entered the room with the unicorn from before. This alien was pure white, with a multicolored mane that seemed to move on its own. The Alien oddly had not only a unicorn horn protruding from its head, but also a pair of feathered wings, which were folded at its sides.

"Imikhonzo, ngikhona Celestia, umbusi waleli sombuso. Ngabe uzwa kanjani namuhla?" the alien said. Titus could not tell for certain, but a slight inflection of the voice seemed to indicate a question.

"Um... I am a human." Titus said, making a random guess as to what the alien had said.

"Ngiyabona ukuthi nina anazi ulimi Equish. Ngizozama elinye ndlela." the alien spoke again. This time there was no question. The alien appeared to contemplate something. After a moment, it picked up one of it's front legs, put it on its chest, and said "Inkosazana Celestia" three times.

Titus guessed "Inkosazana Celestia" was the alien's name, but wanted to be sure. He pointed at the creature and said "Inkosazana Celestia". The creature nodded its head vigorously. Titus then pointed at the other alien. "Inkosazana Celestia?" he asked. Both creatures shook their heads side to side. Hmmm. I wonder if nodding yes and no is the same with these creatures as it is with humans?

Titus pointed at himself and said "Titus Slater."

The larger alien extended a leg towards Titus and said "Titus Slater."

Titus nodded a yes. The alien curled up the corners of its mouth. Almost like it's smiling.

The larger creature pointed at the smaller one and said "Inselo Ezithambile", then it moved its leg in a circle as if to indicate both of them. "Ngamahhashi amancane."

Titus guessed than "Ngamahhashi amancane" was the race of aliens, but could not tell if "Inselo Ezithambile" referred to the small unicorns, or just this one in particular. Nevertheless, he waved his hand in a circle in front of his chest and said "Human."

The larger one nodded its head, before saying "Titus Slater, Human" and then pointing at itself and saying "Inkosazana Celestia, ngamahhashi amancane". It then pointed out the window and spoke. "EZweni sa samahhashi" and swirled its arm all around the room, and pointed out the open door. "EZweni sa samahhashi."

That must be the planet this is: EZweni sa samahhashi. As Titus was about to speak, an alien with what looked oddly like Ancient Roman armor entered the room and said "soMkhulu wakho, Angifisi ukuba nqamula, kodwa sekuyisikhathi sokuba ngawe ukukhulisa ilanga."

"Oh!" exclaimed the larger alien, Inkosazana Celestia, as it rushed over to the window. It closed its eyes and appeared in deep concentration. Titus watched as a yellow aura illuminated Inkosazana Celestia's horn. What? It's almost like that levitation field. Titus glanced out the window at what the alien seemed concentrated on. He gaped in amazement as the sun appeared rapidly on the horizon, rising to the middle of the sky just as the alien's horn aura faded. There is no way this planet rotates like that! It when from dawn to midday in less than thirty seconds!

"Ngiyaxolisa Thithu Slater, Human, kodwa mina kumelwe nihambe Manje, Nginezinto eziningi okufanele sizinakekele." And with that, the large white alien left the room.

Author's Note

As with last chapter, all "Equish" words are in Zulu.

Hopefully more to come soon.

C.E. 1001 - The Kingdom

Author's Note

This is kind of an "Empty" chapter... mostly progressing Titus' knowledge of Equestria so later chapters can work better.
To make it fun, I added some little "Easter Eggs". They really aren't hard to spot.

The one translation line that gave me the most work: "Igama lami ngu 'Selisishonela Ukucwazimula', ubani igama lakho?". I could not get it to work without putting half-quotes around Twilight Sparkle.

C.E. 1001 - The Kingdom

"And how is Thithu doing?" the white Alicorn Princess asked the nurse.

"Much better. It should be completely recovered in a few days. In fact, the other day, it asked what a syringe was. When I told it, it tried to tell me something, saying 'syringe' and 'outside' and 'water' over and over again. I filled a syringe with water, but is shook its head furiously and wouldn't take the syringe. So I asked some of the scientists examining the vessel, and they gave me some syringes they had found in the craft. Thithu took them and injected himself. He looked much better later."

"So he will be released soon? Good. I must arrange for the vessel to be taken to the Crystal Empire site for further study. As soon as you clear the 'Human' to go, I want to know. He will be accompanying me."

"As you command, your Majesty."

Titus Slater, or as the "Ngamahhashi amancane" called him, Thithu, sat in the hospital bed, going over what he had learned for the tenth time that day. He had seen many of the horse-aliens in the last few days, but none of them had spoken any language he recognized. So he figured he might as well learn their language, rather than get any of them to learn Earth languages. Soon, he could name every object in the room, and some more, and knew some basic verbs.

Isipetu he thought, looking at a syringe. Embhedeni, iwindi, emnyango, isitulo, kwesihenqo he thought, naming the bed, window, door, chair and curtain, respectively. He went through the whole room, naming everything. Eventually he stepped it up to the harder things: the verbs. That was where things got tricky. Vocabulary was easy, but verb conjugation? Hard. It had been over a week, and he still hadn't learned how to conjugate "walk" correctly. The unicorn nurse kept correcting him every time he said something.

Finally, unsure if he had the verbs right, he moved on to names. They were odd names too. Inkosazana Celestia was sometimes referred to as "umbusi wethu Celestia", "Inkosazana" or very rarely just "Celestia". It appeared to be a leader or director of sorts, as the large white alien often told the others what to do, and was always obeyed. "Inselo ezithambile" seemed to mean "Soft Hands" or something like that. It was odd, a nurse named Soft Hands. A horse that appeared to be made of crystal kept coming to Inkosazana Celestia with messages, and upon inquiry Titus found it was named "esiliva okusheshayo" which meant "Quick" something-that-had-to-do-with-utensils.

At best, Titus could keep up half a conversation, but mostly he pantomimed and spoke words relating to the concept he was trying to convey. He failed many times.

"Are you sure he's ready?" Princess Celestia asked Soft Hoof, the nurse who was in charge of nursing the Human, Thithu Slater, back to health.

"This is the best it'll ever be. The medicine it has been using has practically healed it on its own."

"But two weeks? Surely with a compound fracture..."

"I assure you Princess, it is well enough to travel."

"If you insist. I will take it to the Crystal Empire tomorrow." The Alicorn said as she left the room.

Inkosazana Celestia came to the room, asked if he could walk, and told him they would be walking to a "esiteshini isitimela", whatever that was. Apparently unesi (which meant nurse) Inselo had cleared Titus to leave.

"Baphi okungokwakhe zami?" Titus asked. Where are my things?

"Ngiye ngabhekana ososayensi ukuhambisa umkhumbi wakho kanye okungokwakhe zenu ukuba umbuso elicwebile. Sithatha isitimela kuze umbuso elicwebile. " said Inkosazana.

What did it just say? Something about moving my belongings? Titus looked at Inkosazana Celestia with a puzzled look.

Seeing his confusion, the winged unicorn repeated what it had said very slowly. "Ososayensi babe okungokwakhe zenu. Le okungokwakhe kukhona at umbuso elicwebile, kanye ngomkhumbi wakho. Sithatha isitimela. "

My somethings have your things. This is at 'umbuso elicwebile', and your boat. We- I give up. My stuff and my 'boat', probably the pod, are at 'umbuso elicwebile' which must be where we're walking. Titus stood, and with a few tentative paces, reached the door where Inkosazana Celestia waited.

"Come" said Celestia, careful to use small phrases. Though the creature called Thithu now knew many words, it was not skilled at forming sentences with them. "Follow me."

"Where we walk?" the creature said, as it followed Celestia out of the room and down the hall.

"The train station." Celestia said for the third time.

She glanced back at it to see the expression it had on its face when it didn't know what was said. Patience, Celestia. It will learn eventually.

They were staring at him. All the little horses were staring at him as he walked with Inkosazana Celestia. And there were quite a lot of aliens staring at him. It's almost like I'm the weird alien. Oh... I guess I am, to them. I'm the alien invader from Earth, and they are the normal little horse things who live here. Titus smiled at some of them, some turned away, others ran away, but just a few returned the smile. "Baphi nezinye Humans? Baphi nezinye ngemikhumbi?" he asked, feeling odd about the way he seemed to be the first human these creatures had seen. Surely the other lifeboats made it? There should be other humans on this planet!

"Yiziphi nezinye Humans? Nezinye Human Imikhumbi?" the large white horse-thing replied.

'What other humans? Other Human ships?' They don't know of the other vessels? Dread began to sink in to Titus' heart. If I'm the only survivor... I'm stuck here.

Soon, they arrived at a long wooden platform. There were many crates laying about, and ponies wearing lab coats loaded them onto a... train? Trains existed in human systems, of course, but this train looked almost like an ancient train, with a smokestack and wood-and-steel tracks. Certainly not like the super-magnetic trains used by the Earth United Planets. Inkosazana Celestia led Titus up a ramp into a rather comfortable-looking train car. There appeared to be very few other horses boarding the train: only the lab coat adorned ones and the "Roman soldiers" that seemed to frequently converse with Inkosazana Celestia. The rest of the small train seemed devoted to the crates.

When the train was loaded, a native who appeared to be the conductor called out "Ingabe zonke on ebhodini?", and then the train departed the station. Titus was left alone in the compartment with Inkosazana Celestia.

The Human Thithu did not appear to say much. Princess Celestia guessed that it was because it could not speak very well. It clearly could not tell what "train" was. This was to be expected. She, and indeed all other ponies, had never seen a being like this before, not in all the world. So to assume it spoke Equish was unreasonable. Nevertheless, as Guardian of the Sun, she was used to even foreign dignitaries speaking her native tongue. It would be insulting to not even have a translator on hand, and expect her, ruler of one of the most powerful nations, to bring her own translators. She did, of course, if only for them to check the translations to ensure correct communication. But even though she now had to contend with this beings foal-like grasp on the language, she quite enjoyed her time with it. She loved being a teacher, which is why she still taught students from her magic school, even though she had been doing it for over two thousand years.

"Crystal Empire." the Human said unexpectedly. "There, Crystal Empire?" it said, pointing back in the direction they had come.

Celestia smiled and shook her head. "No, that is the train station. We are going to the Crystal Empire."

"Esiteshini isitimela" must be the train station. But which word was which? Titus thought. He pointed at the train. "Isitimela?" he inquired, guessing it was correct, since Inkosazana Celestia had said they were "taking the isitimela" earlier.

The Human was learning! It could keep up a child's conversation;naming objects, asking simple questions, and explaining actions were becoming fairly easy for it. And it had learned this so quickly. Celestia was pleased: either she was an extraordinary teacher, or the Human had a knack for picking up languages.

It inquired as to all the locations along the route, and the Princess was only too happy to show off her kingdom: Neighagra Falls was quite an impressive sight, even seen far away from the train tracks. Just wait until it sees the Capital... or the Crystal Empire! Celestia thought.

They had just passed a small, dark town called "Nanezincazelo Okungenalutho", which was "Hollow something". It didn't look like a nice place to visit, so Titus was glad it was quickly passed up. He did wish they had stopped by that waterfall, however, as it was quite impressive. Not nearly as impressive as Titan Falls on Gallius 1, but still quite awe-inspiring.

He was not prepared for their first actual stop, however. The train approached a large mountain, the tallest he had yet seen in this land. It wasn't the mountain that was impressive, however. It was the city. It was built right on the side of the mountain, much like some curious buildings humans built overhanging cliffs, but this was an entire city suspended on the mountain side. Waterfalls, smaller but every bit impressive as the one they had passed earlier, flowed from some high-up mountain stream and cascaded down through the city. The city itself was impressive: towers everywhere gleamed in the sun, bridges spanning the gaps between them. The whole of the city rested on a massive platform, which appeared to be supported on the sides furthest from the mountain with some kind of anti-gravitic pylons.

Titus' view was temporarily cut off as the train passed through a tunnel in the mountain, ascending through the darkness till it reached the other side. Now closer to the city, he could see many other train tracks flowed from or into it, all from clefts in the mountain.

"Canterlot, komkhulu yesizwe sethu." the white winged horse said, nodding its head, and its horn, towards the city.

"Canterlot..." Titus said. He supposed there were many human settlements more grand than this, but not many, and perhaps none that were unique as this.

In a few minutes, they arrived at the station, or rather a station, but to his surprise Titus was told to "Stay here." by Inkosazana Celestia. He watched through a window as they conversed with several "Roman soldiers", these ones armed with spears. Spears? Steam engines? This is certainly not an advance sapient race. Titus noted the presence of many other "guards" around. Inkosazana was let through quickly, as once again the guards appeared to heed their every word. Perhaps Inkosazana Celestia is a military general, Titus hyptothesized which would make sense in the event of First Contact. The government always acts first, and it's the military that gets the aliens. Of course, humans had never encountered any aliens, so this conjecture was based entirely off fiction.

After a half hour or so, Inkosazana Celestia re-boarded the train, and it was on its way again.

The stop in Canterlot was necessary. Princess Celestia had kept the whole "Manehattan Incident" as quiet as possible, but news had inevitably been leaked of the "mysterious sea creature" that had "emerged from the ocean in a fiery explosion". It was quite humorous, really, if what the investigation teams had concluded was true. This creature may have been found drifting in the ocean, but the other vessel certainly hadn't been in any oceans. Rather, given the bizarre meteor shower, the crash at the crystal empire, and the arrival of this curious "Human", the investigators had concluded that this creature came from space. Exactly where, they had no answer. But at least one vessel, and probably many more, had been seen falling from the sky, and the vessel from the ocean had shown signs of scorch marks consistent with those on the crashed vessel and on meteorites that had been recovered in meteor showers. Leading scientists theorized it was from impacting the air at extremely high speeds, and lab tests had confirmed it.

Regardless, the public still had to be informed of the situation, so Celestia had to appear in Canterlot to break the news. She issued a short and direct statement saying that a creature from another world, and several ships, had been found, and that the creature was currently under examination. It did not appear hostile, and no other living creatures had been found. The ponies had taken it surprisingly well, though there were quite a lot of questions asked. Celestia handed the questions over to Princess Luna, who had been briefed before hand, and Celestia left to take the train to its next stop.

Titus felt this land was more and more curious the more of it he saw. Inkosazana Celestia speeding the rise of the sun was rather odd, and inexplicable, but Canterlot was nothing too unbelievable. The next town however, was flying. It was resting on clouds, hovering a mile above the ground, and what appeared to be liquid color flowed off it towards the ground, before disappearing into thin air. It was the most bizarre thing Titus had ever seen, seeming to defy the laws of physics. Titus supposed some anti-gravity technology was again at work, but he found this odd considering the lack of advanced weapons or transportation.

They did not stop to admire the scenery of Amafudale, as it was called, but rather continued on towards yet another mountain chain. This they climbed for several hours, before descending onto a field of ice and snow. Given that the train had traveled roughly North-West, judging from the sun, before turning North-East, Titus assumed they were now near the northern pole of the planet, where even in summer (or spring, he wasn't yet sure which it was), frost would remain on the ground. The train continued until it approached yet another sight that bewildered Titus. It was a city yet again, but this time it appeared to be made of crystal, and strangest of all: it was completely free of snow or frost, though the land all around was covered in it. It was as if that spot of all the region had forgotten it was in the far north, and thought itself a temperate region.

It was here the train stopped, and here Titus was allowed at last to leave the car. The crates and the lab coated horses (Titus assumed they were scientists) were loaded onto several carriages. Why on Earth, or wherever I am, do the sentient horses have horse-drawn carriages? Isn't that a little... pointless? Titus shrugged and boarded the carriage Inkosazana Celestia instructed him to.

They left the shining city behind, heading out North-West again, into the frozen wastes. Along the way, Titus learned that the place they had stopped was the "Umbuso elicwebile" of earlier. He also learned that he would soon see his belongings, and the "other Human belongings", which was rather ominous.

Presently they reached a large camp, populated by coated figures and more "guards". The carriages were unloaded, and Titus and Celestia departed the carriage depot and headed towards a very large central building. It looked as if it had been hastily constructed out of metal sheets. Inside it was quite warm, which was fortunate for Titus since his jumpsuit was not made for -10 Centigrade weather. There was also a site to behold: excavated in the middle of the floor, was the wreck of one of Enduring Spirit's lifeboats. It was smashed almost beyond recognition, but it appeared to have hit the ground at an angle and slid to this position, and landed in some heavy snow. The pilot had apparently tried to make the best of the landing. Unfortunately, it appeared not to have worked. While Titus wasn't quite sure what "efile" was, he could guess his fellow crew members' fate by the covered forms in one corner of the room, and the almost sad look on Inkosazana Celestia's face.

Titus knelt, and mourned.

It was a long time before he got up. There was no use lamenting what was past, they had met their fates, and he was still here living. Titus stood and asked "What next?" in Equish. No doubt they had not brought him here just to inform him of the crew's deaths, they could have done that back at the hospital. He was here for some reason.

Inkosazana Celestia said "Ukulandela". "Follow".

Titus followed the being down a small hall to the door of another room. Celestia entered, and he followed. Inside, there was some technical equipment which included a balance and a microscope, a table, and several items recovered from the crash arrayed on the table. They were being studied by a purple-ish small horse, who was unique in that they were the only other winged unicorn Titus had ever seen, besides Inkosazana Celestia.

Upon their entrance, the small horse looked up, bowed before Celestia, who said "Selisishonela, nangangokwazi...", and then the smaller horse got up and looked at Titus.

Instantly, it started jumping around, squealing: "Oh, Celestia, lokhu kufanele kube Human Ngibonga kakhulu ejabulile ukuhlangabezana it, ingabe a naye noma wakhe, angikwazi ukutshela, kufanele sibuze, kodwa mhlawumbe abazi ngisho ubulili efana senza, noma mhlawumbe banayo engaphezu kweyodwa ubulili, futhi alo owesithathu, noma ubulili sesine, Oh, imibuzo enginalo kwalokhu sidalwa!"

"Selisishonela!" Inkosazana Celestia said, somewhat more sternly than usual. It was clear this creature was a little too excited to meet an alien.

The smaller horse appeared to blush, and, sticking out its hoof, said quietly "Igama lami ngu 'Selisishonela Ukucwazimula', ubani igama lakho?"

It meant, "My name is Selisishonela Ukucwazimula, what is your name?". Titus responded: "Igama lami ngu Titus Andronicus Slater. Kuyinto ngijabulela ukukwazi". He then shook its extended hoof.

The purple creature then proceeded to barrage him with sentences he barely half understood, and his answers were so horrible, that the creature eventually gave up its interrogation. Celestia was shaking its head back and forth. Selisishonela Ukucwazimula gave Inkosazana Celestia a look, then promptly turned back towards Titus.

Why is it looking at me like that? Why is it's horn lighting up? The creature stepped closer to Titus, who stepped back against the door. Don't come closer! I don't know what you're doing! The creature stood on it's hind legs, and bent its glowing horn down to Titus' forehead. There was a zap, and Titus felt really weird. He didn't quite know what Twilight Sparkle had done to him, but clearly something had happened.

"Well, did it work?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

"Woah!" Titus said. It was still speaking in Equish, but he understood every word as clearly as if he were a native speaker. In fact, he could quickly call up the Equish phrase for anything he thought of. His grasp of the language was probably better than his grasp of French. "What did you just do to me?"

"Oh, a simple memory spell. I wasn't sure if it would work, our brains probably being different, and all, but it seems to have worked out fine. I hope there isn't any side effects." Twilight Sparkle said.

"Now Twilight, you've ruined it." Celestia said with a smile. "I was having fun teaching the Human Equish, and you had to go and use a memory spell!"

"Memory... spell?" Titus asked "Side effects?"

"Oh, I'm sure they'll be minor. And if not, I can probably use more magic to fix the brain damage. You'll be fine." Twilight said nonchalantly.

Titus fainted.

C.E. 1001 - Behold My Wonders

Titus dreamed of Earth. He had never been to the planet that was home to the human race. Very few of the 1.6 trillion humans in known space had, since after the Colonial Period much of Earth had been designated as wildlife reserves, and the maximum population of Earth was capped at 3 billion. But Titus had seen pictures, and three-dimensional documentaries, and had often imagined living on Earth, in the days before interstellar travel.

He wandered a forest, with pine trees towering above him. He walked alongside a bubbling stream, following the steady chirping of a distant bird. His boots crunched against the frost-covered undergrowth, and as he walked he could see his breath turn to precipitation. The stream beside him was no longer flowing. Hearing the bird call change direction, he turned and crossed the frozen stream, and stepped into the snow on the other side. Snow fell from the pine branches, and Titus made sure to look up to avoid getting buried. He looked around at the white trees that shook in the heavy wind, squinting his eyes to see through the swirling snow. He could no longer see the trees. He pushed on through the blizzard blindly, but strangely felt no cold anywhere except his face. The bird call got louder and louder, piercing through the blizzard until he could hear it clearly.

"Thithu! Wake up!"

"Is it alright? I didn't mean to scare it."

"I'm sure it's fine. It was like this when it was first found. It just fainted."

"I thought that time was due to blood loss!"

Titus woke up.

"Ah, It's waking up." Celestia remarked to her student. "It'll be fine now, no need to worry."

"Good. I was worried for a moment I'd actually given it brain- MMPH!" Twilight's sentence was cut short by Celestia's hoof covering her mouth.

"No need to alarm it again, Twilight." Celestia smiled as the human opened its eyes and blinked at the two ponies standing by the cot.

"I'm a He, not an It." the human said.

Titus stared at the two aliens next to the cot he was in. He was in the same metal structure he had been in... however long ago he'd fainted. Well, at least I don't have brain damage.

"Oh... well, that was what the doctor had thought, but we couldn't be exactly sure, having never seen your species before. And we wouldn't want to assume." the lavender one, Twilight Sparkle, replied. "So now, does your species have the usual two genders, or do they have three like the draconequui?"

Draconequui? Eh, it doesn't matter now. "Er... two, like usual. Male and Female. Man and Woman." Titus answered. This thing messes with my head, I can now speak and understand an alien language fluently, and the minute I wake up I'M the one being asked questions. I should be doing the asking here!

"So... Man is the Male of the Human species? And Woman is the Female?" Twilight said, as a notebook and a pencil levitated over. The alien scribbled something down in unintelligible script. Apparently the "spell" didn't give me the ability to read. It just looks like scribbles to me.

"Yes." Titus replied instantly.

The creature looked at him oddly. "What was that?"

Huh? Oh, I must have replied in English on accident. "I said Yes." Titus clarified.

"Of course. Our scientists say you are an omnivore?" Twilight continued. "Please describe the typical foods you eat."

Geez, how many questions will it ask me. Wait, is it a she? I should probably ask. "Um, excuse me, but are you a female? I mean, I think so, but I wouldn't want to assume, like you."

"Oh, how could I have forgotten! I should have introduced myself first!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Honestly Twilight, he just woke up and already you've begun interrogating him." Celestia spoke up. "I understand you're curious, but I believe he might be too." The larger creature looked at Titus and smiled.

"I'm sorry, Princess." Twilight looked down for a moment. "Now... I am a female pony, a mare. My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle, and I came here to Northern Equestria... Equestria is the country we're in... to study... You!"

"Wait, did you just say 'Princess'?" Titus asked.

"Yes. Well, Princess Celestia is the one in charge really. I only became Princess a year ago." Twilight Sparkle replied.

It should have been obvious, as soon as I learned the language I knew what "Inkosazana" meant. It also explains why everyone listened to Princess Celestia. "I see. So there are two rulers of your country?" It made sense, sort of.

"Actually, there are four Princesses in Equestria. Myself, my sister Luna, Twilight, and Princess Cadance, who rules the Crystal Empire."

"So are you..." Titus racked his brain, but couldn't come up with an Equish word for elected. "...Are you chosen by the citizens?"

"Of course not. Princesses are chosen for their mastery of a particular form of magic." Twilight replied.

"That's the second time I've heard you talk about magic, or spells. What do you mean?" The more Titus understood this world, the weirder it seemed to get.

"I... don't understand what you're asking. Have you not heard of magic before?" Twilight asked. "Or is it a translation difficulty? The spell should have been flawless, it's based on imagery-emotion connections."

"No, I think I understand you right... but... magic is fake." Titus said, hoping it really wasn't a translation error and magic meant "scientific theory" or something. But then spell would have to be translated wrong too, and that didn't seem likely. Titus also found it difficult to explain a civilization with the tech to alter his memory, but which hadn't invented space travel yet. Or even powered flight.

Twilight coughed. "Excuse me?"

"Magic isn't real. It's unscientific."

"Of course Magic is scientific! Thaumatic Theory is as well established as... as conservation of momentum!" Twilight exclaimed.

"What the heck is Thaumatic Theory?"

"The theory of magic." Celestia offered, though it didn't help Titus much.

"You can't be serious. Magic doesn't exist." Titus said.

"Then how do you explain this!" Twilight practically shouted, waving the notebook and pencil in front of Titus.

Titus had to admit it was impossible to explain the pink aura that kept the notebook aloft. "Um... antigravity fields? Tractor beams? Strings?" That last explanation was pretty lame, Titus realized.

"It's a levitation spell. Most unicorns can perform it." Celestia answered. "I suppose Humans can't perform magic?"

"No." As hard as it was to believe, there was no denying the evidence. If these creatures insisted magic spells were responsible for levitating objects and teaching him a language instantly, who was he to argue with them?

"You mean to tell me that no sapient species on your world can perform magic?" Twilight said, surprise showing on her face.

"Actually, humans are the only sapient species where I come from. You are literally the first non-sapient species humans have ever made contact with, and we've explored thousands of planets. With the exception of 3 or 4 planets that had some plants and microbes, our home planet, Earth, was the only planet that held life we've ever found." Titus explained. I can't believe our first contact took hundreds of years of space flight and colonization, and these creatures made first contact on their own planet. Probably a really long time ago.

"But... without magic, how did you fly here?" Twilight asked.

Titus was at a loss for words. Literally, he lacked the Equish words to explain the propulsion systems that sent humanity through the stars, and the devices that enabled relatively safe wormhole traversals. Simplified answer it is. "Machines. We used non-magical machines to fly here through space. And we have devices that allow us to travel through... 'bends' in space that shorten distances between two far away places. I'm afraid I lack the words to explain it properly."

"Well, just add the words you want to the spel- oh, right. No magic. Haha..." Twilight looked away and laughed nervously. "Normally, you could link the ideas behind a word to the word in the spell, and transfer it to the other's mind. But since it doesn't really work on the reverse, and you can't send me the information, I guess we can't go further in your explanation."

"Right..." Titus said. Honestly, he had no idea how he would do that even if he could do magic, but he left that idea alone for now. "Basically, it's all advanced science stuff."

"Okay. So... why are you here? I mean, not right here, like, this planet here." the winged unicorn continued her interrogation.

"We..." How do I explain this? "The ship we were on traveled through a hole in space, and appeared right between your planet and your moon. The gravity of the planet pulled the ship in, and it isn't designed to land on planets, so everyone on board evacuated on lifeboats, and the ship most likely broke apart. The escape pod I was in crashed into the ocean, but the lifeboats aren't actually designed to land on planets, which is why the one here crashed."

"So you are here on accident, then. You did not intend to come here." Celestia summarized what Titus had just said.

"Exactly."

"I do not wish to dishonor your comrades who died, but I believe it is fortunate for us that you arrived here on accident." Celestia said. "We can perhaps learn a lot from you, Thithu Slater. As I'm sure you can learn from us."

There was quite a lot of learning over the next week at the "Foreign Object Research Site #1" as it was officially called. Titus was quite tired of explaining the nature of every single object Twilight Sparkle got her hooves on.

"Thithu, what about this thing? What does it do?" Twilight said, turning a very badly damaged holographics panel over with her magic.

"That would be a... realistic visual... screen. If it was working, it would respond to touch, but it seems destroyed beyond repair. Even as a technician, I couldn't fix it." Titus said, turning back to the lifeboat's power supply system. The craft had taken significant damage on impact, and the ship's hybrid fusion/fission reactor had shut down automatically. The distress signal Titus had picked up earlier was powered only by the solar panels on the ship, which had been damaged themselves, and being inside a building had drained the ship of power completely. Titus had to repair what he could of the solar panels, acquire enough power to restart the muon-catalyxed fusion, and the lifeboat would be... still pretty much inoperable.

"Hmm..." Twilight hummed, turning the holopanel over a few times before discarding it on the 'FUBAR' pile. "Well, what about this?" she said levitating another object towards Titus.

"Woah, put that thing down! That's a Xion Peacekeeper Mark XIII!" Titus said, switching to English for the weapon's name.

"A what?" Twilight said, hastily dropping the automatic handgun to the floor.

"It's a... a weapon." Damn, lacking the words in another language really makes it hard to describe weapons. "It's a thing that shoots explosives... like a small cannon, but it fires off a lot of shots rapidly. I wouldn't play with it, it's too dangerous." Twilight backed away from the handgun as Titus spoke, looking at the gun as if it had turned into a cobra. Titus walked over and picked up the weapon, aiming it at the floor about 5 meters away while checking that the safety was on. After that, he removed the magazine that had been fed into the handgun. Why it was loaded was a mystery, firearms were supposed to remain unloaded onboard spacecraft unless the ship had been boarded by hostiles.

Titus took aim at a nearby pile of snow, disengaged the safety, and pulled the trigger once. Nothing happened. Titus clicked the safety back on, and satisfied that the weapon was more or less neutralized, laid it on a table on delicate equipment. He kept the magazine with him for safe keeping. "Ms. Sparkle, you should probably tell the other researchers to look out for things like that. I don't want any ponies getting killed on accident."

"Yes, of course," Twilight immediately. Then she stopped and turned to look at Titus. "But um... what exactly is such a dangerous weapon doing on your boat?"

"Well..." Titus hadn't told any of the ponies the nature of the ship, other than its mission of scouting wormholes, but he didn't really see a need to withhold the information. "It was a military ship we were on. Part of my nation's navy."

"So, you are a soldier?" Twilight said, a hard to read expression on her face. "You didn't come here to invade did you?"

"No, no, of course not!" Titus replied. Apparently alien invasion is a universal fear. "And I'm not really a soldier either. As I said earlier, I'm an engineer, a repair guy. And we didn't even know this planet existed til after we had passed through the wormhole and began to crash."

This seemed to ease any of the unicorn's fears. But Titus began to wonder what would happen if the Earth United Planets had decided to conquer the planet...

"Magic is a natural part of the universe, an underlying field that can be interacted with, while invisible to most. Unicorns, and Alicorns-"

"Alicorns... Right, winged unicorns. " Titus said, interupting Celestia while taking a note on a intertab, a wrist-mounted computer that had remarkably survived the lifeboat's crash. "Makes sense." Celestia was giving him a "short" lecture on basic magical theory.

"Alicorns are much more than winged unicorns, Titus. Alicorns are a separate sub-species of pony, more than just Unicorns with wings." Celestia resumed. "Now, as I was saying, Unicorns and Alicorns such as myself have a natural affinity for magic, being able to interact with it much more easily than most other species."

"But how? How do you interact with this... Thaumatic field?" Titus asked. So far, everything he'd heard sounded very vague and unscientific. Not that he doubted, he'd seen enough magic not to doubt, it just didn't make any sense.

"The Thaumatic field is influenced by emotions. Much like the spell Twilight used on you earlier, magic is tied to emotions the way the Equish words you learned are tied to your emotions. You understand the meaning of the words because they are tied to the meaning in your mind. Spells are only tying the Thaumatic field to your emotions, to influence it to your desires. This allows a broad range of magic spells, but it is still limited to the capabilities of the user." Celestia explained. Her soft yet clear voice made comprehension of her words perfectly clear. Comprehension of the subject matter, was quite different.

"But, wouldn't you have only a few spells? Anger spells, sad spells, happy spells..." Titus faltered. Apparently he didn't have an Equish "etcetera" either.

"Ah, but those are only the base of the spells. Those emotions can be combined in any order, and directed at any number of objects in any number of ways. For example, combat fire spells stem from Anger, Courage, and Determination. But a simple sparking spell used to light a fire can be based in Comfort, Fear, and Love."

"So when you are using a spell, you just feel these things, and it happens?" It still didn't sound very logical to Titus, but at least it almost made sense, in a weird way.

"Of course not. Raw emotions can lead to magic, but most unicorns can't perform consistent spells that way. At best, it results in Chaos magic that does almost what you wanted. True spells are based in Incantations." Celestia continued with her lecture.

"But I've never heard any of you say anything when doing spells." Titus pointed out.

"The incantations don't have to be spoken aloud to trigger emotions." Celestia was smiling. She was quite enjoying the lecture. She still rarely taught on "Guest" Speaker days at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, but ruling a country was a busy job. She couldn't teach at her own school as much as she wanted to. This little lecture, however, reminded her of the days before Unification, when she personally taught young unicorns in Unicornia. "The importance is getting the right emotions, in a standardized way, so the spell works the same everytime. By using words in an incantation, you insure the same emotions tied to those words come up everytime. And thinking an incantation keeps your mind focused on the spell. With pure emotions, your mind can wander." Teaching was quite delightful. Unfortunately, nobles didn't like being lectured to in the Equestrian Council, and petitioners at the Day Court didn't usually have time for lessons. "And while you can say the incantation aloud, it's slower than thinking it, it's distracting to others, and in combat it lets your enemy know which spell you are using."

"So, you have these string of words that create the spells? Are they written down? Can you have different incantations that do the same thing?" Titus was excited. It made sense now. It was almost like a programming language for magic, as he understood.

"Creating spells is a very difficult task, often involving trial and error. One has to choose the words for the spell in a particular order, and choose words that are tied to the correct emotions. As such, there are only a couple thousand incantations that are accepted as 'standardized', meaning they will work the same everytime for almost everypony."

"So, the big question: If magic is emotions, why can't everyone do it? Why only unicorns and Alicorns." Titus asked.

"That, my little- uh, errm" Celestia looked away for a moment looking lightly embarrassed. She quickly continued, however. "That is an answer that would take much longer to explain, and delves into Advanced Thaumatic Theory, which deals with the underlying rules of magic and the Thaumatic field itself, rather than the simple rules governing its use." Celestia smiled. "And now, I think you had better get back to Twilight and the lifeboat. That's enough magical lesson for one day."

Titus walked away, happy he at last seemed to possess some explanation of magic, but disappointed. He felt he now had nearly as many questions as when he had started, and his unanswered questions lingered at the back of his mind.

The next week was just as busy as the last. Titus had been repairing the lifeboat, and all systems seemed ready to reboot the ship. Of course, there was nowhere he could go in it, since it was designed only for space flight and not atmospheric flight, but it could remain powered for quite some time and had access to more devices than his escape pod had.

Twilight, and all the researchers at the site, had quite a lot of questions about the escape pod. Titus had demonstrated the holographics panels, the various sensor arrays, the water and air recyclers, and even the thrusters (though the pod had been tied down with steel cable and held in place by magic before the thrusters were fired). Titus had tried to explain as much of the human technology as possible, but not all of it translated well, and sometimes it was just impossible.

Now at last, the lifeboat could be fired up, allowing access to its far more expansive computer database, it's real-time holographic star map (far more advanced than the one on the pod), and probably most important of all: the Organic Compound Synthesizer. Using a stock of hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen, the synthesizer could replicate a large amount of organic molecules from Trinitrotoluene to Phenylalanine. Of course, the amount of products that could be produced was very limited, and the products always came out in small masses inside sealed canisters, but if Titus needed some nutrients, small explosives, or medicine, it could be produced in a few hours or up to a few days.

Titus began the start up procedure for the reactor. The fusion process started back up, and then the fusion process restarted the fission reactions that provided the bulk of the ship's power. All the displays came back online, including the distress beacon and star map. And the comm channels. One of which was receiving a signal from several hundred miles away.

"...shhhh... ...crew... Enduring Spirit... lifeboat destroyed and using main... eading south..."

A.D. 2563 - Guardian Angel

Author's Note

Well, you didn't think I'd forgotten all about those pesky humans did you? Because they'll be a pretty important part of this story.

Sorry for the long wait, I was stranded in the frozen, internet-free wastes of Palmyra, New York. Hopefully I won't make you wait as long for the next chapter.

A.D. 2563 - Guardian Angel

Out in the reaches of space, unseen by the eyes of humans, radio waves traveled past the cosmic dust. The electromagnetic waves moved at the speed of light, and in the near-vacuum of space, it took the signals only a few weeks to reach the Earth United Planets ship Eternal Hope, sister ship of Enduring Spirit. This vessel was on a separate but related mission: Mapping out possible colony and station sites near the wormhole sectors Enduring Spirit explored. Because the ships were almost six lightyears from the nearest Earth United Planets outpost, a station orbiting Alpha-Gamma-Omicron 5 (a temporary name, using the inhabited system naming index), the sister ships were responsible for rescuing survivors of the other ship should disaster befall one of them.

Accidents are common things, but with the utmost priority on safety, ship-destruction levels of catastrophe were pretty rare. The captain, and indeed all the bridge crew of Eternal Hope, was quite shocked to hear that a bad jump had resulted in the probably complete loss of another ship, and possibly the loss of some of the lifeboats as well. But Captain Garnett Kay remembered her ship had a duty, and promptly mobilized the crew to rescue the survivors, if any. They would arrive near the wormhole in five months.

About seven months after that, the distress signal from Enduring Spirit would reach Outpost 1372, the station around Alpha-Gamma-Omicron 5. Those at the station would most likely do nothing. A rescue mission one lightyear out would be too costly. They would receive it, and in accordance to protocol begin preparing to outfit another expedition immediately, which would finish the exploration while Eternal Hope was on the return journey. The crew of the ship would get to end their tour early, and if they rescued any survivors, would probably be awarded medals and promoted to a higher paygrade.

The distress signal would continue on, for twenty years until it reached the Earth United Planets High Command on Archemandium. The news would come as no surprise, no doubt. It would set exploration plans back, but the computer systems at High Command had factored the probability of such losses into their projections thirty years before, issued appropriate orders should such an event occur, and made sure that at the very worst a ten year setback would occur. Of course, that meant that for two decades the government on Archemandium would be under the assumption that the exploration of that sector was complete or nearing completion, but since any further colonization would be handled by much more local operations points, which had already been issued a thousand sets of orders detailing what to do in any of a thousand circumstances, no ships would be deployed prematurely. The empire of Earth United Planets would continue on, the incident relegated to just another deep space disaster.

That is, it would be, if the news of sapient life on an inhabited planet were never sent out behind the news of the disaster.

Ensign Guntram Van Ankeren stared at Senior Chief Petty Officer Bonfils as she fiddled with an odd combination of electronics: A radio and her intertab. Both devices were connected by wires taken from both devices and spliced together, and the contraption was secured with tape.

"Senior Chief, what in the Planets are you making?" Van Ankeren inquired. Most of the other 40 crew members of the lifeboat were sitting around doing nothing, or eating, or using the water room (which served as both a shower and restroom, and recycled all the waste). But Bonfils seemed awfully busy for a person confined to a lifeboat in space the size of a small motel.

"I think I've found a way to contact any survivors on the other side of the wormhole. Normally, we can't reach them because there's no 'line of sight' to the planet, but I've rigged this so that it broadcasts any signals we send to it outwards. If we get this on the other side of the wormhole, as long as we have a line of sight to it, and it has a line of sight to the planet, we can contact any survivors."

"But how are we going to get it through the wormhole?" one of the lifeboat pilots asked, gaining interest in the conversation.

"We use the waste jettison. It might take awhile for it to reach the wormhole, with such a low velocity, but if we wait, we can see if any of the crew on the other side is still alive." Bonfils replied.

"I'll pass the word on to the other lifeboats on this side. How long will we be able to use this to communicate?" said Ensign Van Ankeren.

"Once it's through the wormhole, I estimate we have between ten and twenty minutes before it falls out of our sight. But we can probably make more of these and the other lifeboats can make some as well. We should be able to maintain contact with anyone on the other side for awhile, as long as we are willing to waste radios and intertabs."

"Tee Minus One minute until the radio crosses the wormhole." Bonfils called out, monitoring the computer screens intently. "After that, we should have contact in about three minutes."

It had taken awhile for the radio "relay station" to reach the the wormhole, due to the fact that the crew had no way to accelerate the device once it was launched. But with nothing to do on the lifeboat, patience had become less of a virtue and more of a fact of life. Now that something was so close to happening, the crew members were all practically on the edge of their seats.

"It's crossed the wormhole. Commence broadcasting. We should receive feedback shortly." Bonfils called out. The ship, which was normally filled with the meaningless banter that the crew had taken up to pass the time, was now eerily silent. Ensign Van Ankeren briefly wondered if the ship had a leak in its airtight whole, and all the atmosphere had somehow escaped into the void without anyone noticing.

Nothing happened.

After three minutes, the silence was finally broken. Crackling noises emanated from one of the communication consoles on the lifeboat. "Someone's transmitting on the life-support system maintenance channel! We've got a signal!" the tech manning that particular console spilling out words almost faster than he could say them.

Ensign Van Ankeren immediately moved to the console. "Attention, this is Ensign Van Ankeren of the Enduring Spirit, Lifeboat J-10. Requesting identification."

"Petty Officer... Class... Adams, lifeboat... 9... shhhhhh..."

"The signal's too weak. They must be using a personal radio, rather than a lifeboat radio." the tech stated.

"Look, If you can hear me, I need to know your location and condition in case of possible retrieval." Van Ankeren spoke into the console's microphone. Of course, "possible" meant "possible if we had the right equipment and vehicles on hand", which meant "possible when another ship arrives". By then, the location of Petty Officer Adams would probably be outdated, but it was still pretty valuable data

"Um... we don't... star map for R.E. Co-ordin... twenty miles or so... of coast... desert, savannah..." the static-filled transmission continued.

"Officer Adams, your transmission is weak, please repeat. You don't have Relative Earth Coordinates?"

"Negat... equipment dama... water. Radio and... only things... ere salvaged." Adams breathed heavily into the radio. "Hostile creatures inbou... engagin-" the transmission abruptly cut to static. After a few seconds of silence on Adams' end, Van Ankeren grew nervous.

"Officer Adams, please respond. Have you engaged hostile creatures? Please describe the type of hostiles encountered? Adams, can you hear me? Anyone, please respond. Please respond!" Van Ankeren was met with more static. He slammed the console with a fist in frustration. "Damn, we've lost them. Keep the line open, listen in case we receive a response." The tech nodded in affirmation.

"Sir, incoming communication on the emergency channel. Lifeboat I-5 apparently." Bonfils called from the other end of the lifeboat.

"Answer it." Van Ankeren ordered, turning around and marching swiftly over to the console Bonfils was at.

"Lifeboat J-10, this is Petty Officer Second Class Slater, responding from lifeboat... ur, I-5." The voice on the other end came through clear, and sounded remarkably well for someone who had been stranded on an alien planet for several weeks.

"Slater's alive?" Bonfils whispered under her breath.

"Petty Officer Slater, this is Ensign Van Ankeren of lifeboat J-10. Please inform us as to the state of your lifeboat's crew, in case of possible retrieval."

"Well, um, this isn't my lifeboat. I landed in escape pod D2 from L Deck. Lifeboat I-5's crew appears to be all dead by all indications. No survivors were found near the wreckage."

"You mean to tell me the boat crashed so badly all the crew died, but the communications system and power were left intact?" Van Ankeren asked, incredulous.

"No, I repaired it for the last two weeks. Works almost good as new now."

"How exactly were you able to locate the wreck, Slater? If all the crew died, and the systems were non-functional, you could not have located the crash except by chance." Bonfils interjected.

"I was taken to it." Slater replied.

"What do you mean, 'taken to it'?"

"There are sapient lifeforms on the planet." Everyone in the lifeboat gasped. "They rushed to the crash site and began studying it. When they recovered my pod, I was taken to lifeboat crash site."

"Officer Slater, are you aware of the penalties of lying to a superior officer?" Van Ankeren asked in a rather stern tone.

"Yes, sir. But there really are sapient lifeforms here. Quadrupedal herbivores remarkably similar to horses. They have an advanced civilization roughly equivalent to early nineteenth century civilization. I'll upload videos-"

"We don't have time for that Slater. The connection will be cut soon. We need your R.E. Co-ords." Bonfils interrupted.

"I'm not getting any signals from Earth. I must be in star system in excess of 500 lightyears from Earth. So no R.E. Coordinates. Planetary coordinates relative to magnetic field and star's current position is one-twenty-eight-point-two-four by thirty-five-point-six-seven."

"Confirmed. One last question, Slater. Petty Officer Adams is somewhere on the planet. He reported hostile creatures closing on his position. These sapients... are they hostile?" Bonfils waited for the answer.

"No. At least, they don't seem hostile. They've been nothing but friendly to me so far. But..." he said, voice dropping to a whisper, "I received Adam's transmission a few days ago. They won't let me leave."