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The last time Avra had been with the leadership of the new IITO, it had been full of tension. They were still negotiating what the new government body would look like. Initially, they had agreed to the accords together to gain access to the Xorcerizt’s weapons to stand a better chance against the extragalactic invaders.
At first, it had been to stop the Ditufgne incursion. And then their superweapon arrived and it took on a more desperate, more focused immediacy.
Now the superweapon had been destroyed and the Ditufgne had surrendered. The threat that had been the impetus to bring the five disparate races together – Human, Yalifira, Zathru, Ravusq, and Doolari – was no longer a threat.
It was not, by any stretch of the imagination, over, however.
The Ditufgne had surrendered, promised by Alvon Gargarm survival and somewhere for their whole race to call home. That, however, remained to be seen.
The Ditfugne had been responsible for a ton of losses that included lives, starships, property, and the like. Two worlds all but destroyed, banished to the void between galaxies and tens of thousands of years away, inaccessible as such.
There would be demands that the Ditufgne pay some form of reparations. They wouldn’t just be allowed to take a planet and travel across the galaxy. Some would demand their destruction. Others would demand some form of imprisonment. Some would suggest banishing them back to the void from which they’d come.
The only two solutions Avra could see with any form of logic were giving them a world but restricting them to it for a generation or three. Or destroying them. But genocide - even after the horrors they were responsible for – was unacceptable.
Alvon Gagarm had created a unique situation before the young IITO. And how they acted and what they did next was going to set the blueprint for everything they were and could become. Or not.
That said, they were welcoming unexpected guests and observers to the proceedings. The leaders of the Pame and Qi’ta-ji fleets that had come to the aid of the IITA were already present. The races that made up the IITO were already familiar with both, though less so than one another. Humans, of course, were least familiar with these two races.
Then there were the Torvodach, Gree, Ba-ah’ka’shen-tof, and Zmikard. Avra had gone to the Torvodach and persuaded them to send their fleet to assist in stopping the void incursion of the Ditufgne, to send them a clear message that they could not invade the galaxy and destroy whatever they pleased at will.
The Tovodach, in turn, had called on some of their closer allies to join them.
The first interaction between Humans, and not necessarily the first, but closest interaction with Doolari, Zathru, and Ravusq, was as allies against a common threat.
And now they were going to be present for the IITO discussion of and negotiations with the Ditifugne.
Avra was familiar with the Torvodach and had been made aware of the Zmikard through them. But even xez was utterly unfamiliar with the Gree and Ba-ah’ka’shen-tof.
All xez knew was that the Gree and Ba-ah’ka’shen-tof lived more-or-less on the other side of the galaxy from the five races of the IITO. Avra knew that they most likely shared borders with the Torvodach. But xez knew that none of the five races of the IITO had ever met them or heard of them before.
Torvodach, Avra knew, had populations across as many star systems as the Humans, Zathru, and the like. They occupied territory that was equal to or larger than those of the IITO races.
All Avra had been able to learn was that the Gree and Zmikard were also large races and had been traveling across space nearly as long as the more familiar races. The Ba-ah’ka’shen-tof were newer to space and interstellar travel, relatively speaking. The former races measured their time away from their worlds of origin in millennia, while the Ba-ah’ka’shen-tof did so in centuries.
Avra recognized that it was a big, big galaxy. For all of xerz connections and all that xez was aware of, even Avra had new things to learn, peoples to meet, and experiences to have.
At the request of the Gavana, Avra was awaiting the arrival of the Torvodach and their companions.
Pira Delvi, as always, stood at Avra’s side. Xez would be the first Human to formally meet these races.
Avra knew that Humans who were affiliated with no governments had met races other than the common ones. But they were few and far between.
Avra and Pira did not speak as they watched the unfamiliar shuttle craft entering the IITO headquarters landing bay. Avra mused on where this meeting between the IITO races and the Torvodach could go. The Torvodach was a central race in their part of space. But the Zmikard, Gree, and Ba-ah’ka’shen-tof were more than just their close allies. Together, all four races served as bridges to countless more races.
Avra was personally aware of – if not familiar with – at least twenty different races. But xez was aware that that was just a small number in the grand scheme of things.
Though the IITO was formed to gain mutual support and meet the requirements of the Xorcerizts compact to gain access to their superior, effective weapons against the Ditufgne, the new body represented something more. Five races that had been mostly cooperative together for centuries had allied and declared peace between them. Then they created a mutually beneficial body.
As they moved beyond the Ditufgne threat, the body as one had the ability to gain new alliances and new trading partners in ways never before possible.
Without the formation of the IITO, Avra would never have been able to convince the Torvodach to come and stand in solidarity against the Ditufgne. To Avra’s mind, bringing along their closest allies implied that perhaps together with the Torvodach, they had their own alliance akin to the IITO.
The shuttle completed its landing. Avra saw Pira Delvi square her shoulders, prepared to meet aliens she had not met before on behalf of her whole race.
A panel on the side of the shuttle shimmered and vanished. Seven Torvodach appeared and glided to take up positions along the path from the ship.
Even Avra found xerzself hard-pressed to tell one Torvodach from another. They were all around six feet tall, largely cylindrical from their base to about midway up their body, then they tapered off to a thin, rounded point at the top. Along their backs were rigid, hard scales, rounded at the bottom, which xez knew they could shift to surround and protect their entire body.
They had six appendages, the two nearest their lower half longer than the four above them. They were three to a side, like tentacles. Each pair on the left and right ended in a different protuberance, two being pinchers, two being suckers, and the last two in slender fingers and an opposable, equally slender thumb.
The shading of their white, luminescent skin varied subtly. Avra wondered if they saw different spectra of light and thus variances among themselves.
A trio of Torvodach emerged. Avra was pleased to see that xez recognized Omiano ach Qo. Not that Avra could put into words how xez differentiated him from the others, but xez knew.
Next, another trio emerged. Avra had not seen them before in person, but she knew these three were the Zmikard.
The Zmikard were difficult to describe. They had long, slender, undulating bodies made of scales vaguely reminiscent of the Torvadach. They reminded Avra of a creature from Human worlds called a snake.
They arose about four feet, though their lower portions stretched several feet behind them, varying from another four feet to maybe eight feet. They had wide mouths, extended muzzles, and large black eyes flecked with silver.
The three had different tones to the bodies. One was golden, the other a silver-grey, the third an inky, shiny black.
Along their backs, they had five long, thin arms that seemed to float. Though some of the most unique creatures that Avra had ever seen, they were just close enough in bearing that xez could understand their connection to the Torvodach. Maybe that had something to do with the sector of space, so far away, from whence they came.
Another trio emerged from the ship behind the Zmikard. They were an unexpected contrast.
Avra judged that they stood around seven feet tall. They appeared to have two legs, though on closer examination, they looked somewhat more like tentacles. Two sets of arms hung to either side.
After that, their description was much fuzzier. All three were bio-mechanoids. They were more than just cyborgs, they were a close blend of organic and machine.
Where the biological began and the mechanical ended – or vice versa – was impossible to say. Each of the three had a different head. Vaguely oval and bulbous, but one had eyes all around, another had three, the last four in the front and at least one to each side. Their mouths, noses, and ears were indistinct.
They reminded Avra of androids more than cyborgs.
Another unique trio emerged.
Avra, for the first time since xez began trading across the galaxy, had to stop xerzself from gawking. The first description xez could make was balls.
They were round, and about the same height as the Zmikard. But their whole bodies rolled, save a distinct head at the top.
Each of the three had a differently shaded blue fur. No obvious appendages appeared. Their heads were half-moons, but then Avra realized they were helmets.
Encounter suits or environmental suits. Perhaps they were like the Qui-ta ji and mostly energy. But Avra suspected instead they were not oxygen or nitrogen breathers.
With Pira at xerz side, Avra approached the delegation.
The Torvodach that Avra recognized to be Omiano ach Qo took the lead. They bowed slightly to one another, Avra emulating Torvodach custom.
Though Omiana ach Qo had no mouth, Avra heard him say, “It is good that we are able to meet like this again.”
“I am pleased as well,” Avra said. Xez gestured to xerz assistant. “This is Pira Delvi, my aide.”
Omiana ach Qo did the bow to Pira, who responded in kind. Then, gesturing to the other Torvodach with him. “My subordinates.”
Except “subordinates” was not exactly the word as Avra understood it. There was nuance to it that did not translate to spoken language. Both Torvodach at Omiana ach Qo’s side gave a lesser bow to Avra and Pira.
The black-skinned Zmikard slithered forward. Omiana ach Qo gestured and said, “Avra Pii K’tark’ah, Pira Delvi, may I introduce Don Dub Nod Bud.”
The Zmikard extended a limb from his back in a gesture between a wave and a salute. “Yalifira and, I’m sorry, what race are you, Pira Delvi?”
“Human,” said Pira.
Don Dub Nod Bud looked to Omiana ach Qo. “I have heard such a race existed. They look quite... Plain.”
“Now, Don Dub Nod Bud, that may be considered rude,” said Omiana ach Qo in a tone that Avra thought was chiding.
Pira, always sharp, said, “We do come in various colors and genders, too. But by comparison to you and your companions, it is fair to call us plain.”
Don Dub Nod Bud made a sound that Avra found made xerz feel lighter, and xez presumed it to be a laugh. “Oh,” Don Dub Nod Bud said after a moment. “I am going to like these creatures of they are all like this one.”
The biomechanoid with eyes all around their head came forward. Omiana ach Qo said, “This is Aygee.”
The Gree crossed all four arms in front of them and said, “I greet you, ungendered one.” Avra copied the gesture.
The darkest blue-furred ball-creature rolled forward as Omiana ach Qo said, “And this is Kh pa’shi an-top of the Ba-ah’ka’shen-tof.”
As the wildly different alien came to a stop before Avra, a hidden space opened, and a slender arm extended with an eight-fingered hand at the end of it. Avra reached out to take it.
“It is a great pleasure to be present on this historic occasion,” Kh pa’shi an-top said in a soft, rasping, but melodic tone. Kh pa’shi an-top reached out to Pira Delvi, and they shook hands as well.
Avra said, “Though I am not a leader of the IITO, I can tell you how deeply grateful they have been to you for joining the fight to stop the Ditufgne.”
“The threat they represented could not go unanswered,” said Aygee.
“That was what I hoped you would recognize,” Avra affirmed. “What comes next will be decided here. Will you and your party join Pira and I to meet the Gavana, Alvon Gargarm of the CSA, and the rest of the IITO leaders?”
“We look forward to being witness to this,” stated Don Dub Nod Bud.
“As do I,” said Avra. Xez gestured. “This way, if you please?”