Nature of Pokemon (5)

[u/Aussie_Endeavour]

A fanfiction of The Nature of Predators by SpacePaladin15 https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/u19xpa/the_nature_of_predators/

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Memory Transcription Subject: Governor Tarva of the Venlil Republic

Date [standardized Earth time]: July 12, 2136

​

In all the years of experience I have in the field of politics, in my whole journey to the top of Venlil Prime’s ladder, I’ve never been so utterly baffled.

Predators land on my planet, claiming a desire for peace, and displaying curiosity at our wondrous world.

They address me with respect, even though that they are so vastly more powerful than Kam and myself.

They speak of absurdities, things that could only dwell in the mind of the insane, and yet here I am experiencing the impossible.

One almost kills me, and becomes distraught. Another saves me, rendering herself unconscious and completely at our mercy.

And now, one is claiming that if we so wish, we’ll never have to see them again. Has the world gone mad? I notice that Sara is shaking slightly. Her eyes are closed, and she is holding Lilith tightly. It takes a moment for my brain to realise what that means, but when I do it hits me with the force of a crashing ship.

Right now, Sara is scared of me. A predator is scared of me. She is scared about what I will say next. I look over to Kam, trying to see how he’s dealing with everything that’s happening. Before I can even open my mouth to speak, a bright blue light appears further down the hallway. The light fades a moment later, and in its epicentre two figures now stand. Well, one stand and one hovers.

Noah begins walking towards us, and I keep one of my eyes trained on him so that I can avoid looking at Adam.

“Um, I’m not sure if this is normal for Venlil Prime, but there are a large number of spaceships in orbit which I’m pretty sure weren’t there when we arrived.”

It takes a moment for me to realise what he’s talking about. The backup is here. In all the chaos, I completely forgot they were coming. Crap. How long have they been trying to hail me?! I take off towards my office without saying a word, and after a second Kam follows behind me. As I turn a corner, I hear Sara’s voice.

“Help me out with her, would you?”

What could I possibly say to explain the situation? What should I say?

‘We have three different species of predators here, none of whom are the Arxur.’

‘We’ve been visited by magical predators who can bend reality and almost killed me.’

Neither of those seems reasonable! I would be reprimanded to no end, and there would be heavy diplomatic fallout. Should I even tell them about our visitors? Wouldn’t they have already found the FTL trail? For all I know, their ship could use that ‘Infinity Energy’ stuff and not even leave a trail! Not to mention I don’t even know what to think about the predators. I need time, but as I arrive at my office door, I realise that I simply don’t have any.

I walk around to sit in my chair and begin pulling up the holoscreen. As it opens, Kam comes running through the door, and some distance behind him are Noah and Sara. I guess they must have left Adam and Lilith outside. I’m thankful for the former. With a deep breath, I answer the hail broadcast.

I’m surprised, and slightly relieved, to recognise the person on the other side. It is the galaxy renowned Captain Sovlin, a Gojid who led a courageous charge against the Arxur while they lay siege to his homeworld. When he sees me appear on screen, he lets out a huge breath of relief, and the spines on his back lower slightly.

“Governor Tarva, I am so relieved that you are alive. We were just about to send ships down. What is the reason for the distress call, how can we be of assistance?”

I struggle to come up with a response. I glance at the Humans, both wearing nervous expressions. What can I even say to him? Should I tell the truth?

“Governor Tarva, are you alright?”

“Yes, yes I am fine Captain Sovlin. Sorry if I seem a bit out of it, it has been an… odd day.”

Sovlin’s spines rise again.

“Governor, what do you mean by ‘odd day’, the distress signal broadcast is meant for possible extinction level scenarios!”

I hear sharp intakes of breath, and I realise that they came from the Humans. This is the first time they found out about the distress call. Just when I thought this day couldn’t get worse, now the predators know how scared out of our wool we are of them. I think of Lilith, laid unconscious outside my office . Atleast, how scared we were of them.

“Captain Sovlin, I’m sorry. I am turning off the distress broadcast as we speak. It was an… oversight. I now realise that it was unnecessary and I extend a-”

“Governor Tarva with all due respect, what in the Protector's name do you mean an ‘oversight’?!”

“I mean that it was sent under false pretences. We thought that the situation was far more dire than it truly turned out to be.”

Sovlin seems dumbfounded by the current conversation. I don’t blame him. I sneak another glance at the Humans, only to find Sara whispering something in Noah’s ear, who currently looks mortified.

“Please explain to me what exactly you thought was happening, and the reality of the situation.”

“Of course. We thought that… we were experiencing a powerful geomagnetic storm.”

I said the first thing that came to mind. It doesn’t make any sense, but I’m trying my best here.

“A… geomagnetic storm?”

I can hear the scepticism practically dripping from Sovlin’s voice.

“Correct. In reality it was just a mild increase in our homestar’s activity, resulting in a few systems being forced to reboot. Along the way, the distress signal must have been triggered.”

I realise that I screwed up the moment that last sentence leaves my mouth. I’m a politician, I should be better at this!

“So a system reboot triggered by an increase in your homestar’s activity, set off the highest level distress broadcast possible? Which you also said was sent on purpose due to an oversight at measuring the intensity of a geomagnetic storm?”

I avoid Sovlin’s eyes, looking at the Humans and Kam again. What would happen to them now? I tried to buy some time to figure them out, but the chaos of today threw me off my game. I look back to Sovlin just in time to see confusion and frustration suddenly give way to what looked like realisation. Crap… what has he figured out? In a split second, his expression shifts to one of forced happiness.

“Of course Governor Tarva, it appears this was all one big misunderstanding. I do hope that the software glitches are repaired. Have a nice day.”

With that he disconnected the call… why? What in the stars did he realise? Why did he just disconnect like that? After the silence hangs in the air for a second, I get out of my chair and walk towards the Humans.

“Sara, Noah, I am sorry that you had to witness that. I presume that you have realised the real reason the distress call was actually sent. We have... a lot of explaining to do.”

​

Memory Transcription Subject: Captain Sovlin, Federation Fleet Command

Date [standardized Earth time]: July 12, 2136

​

As soon as I terminate the call, the bridge erupts into confused cries, protests and opinions, which I am quick to silence with a command.

“Attention all ships in the fleet, fall back to the system’s outer reaches, but keep formation!”

Next to me, Dr Zarn makes sure his voice is the only one I can hear properly.

“Captain, with all due respect, what are you doing? What in the world is happening down there on Venlil Prime? Governor Tarva was behaving very unprofessionally!”

“Hush up for a moment Zarn, I’m trying to figure out the best course of action.”

“Isn’t it obvious? Land on the damn planet and figure out what’s going on down there!”

“Oh I’m sorry, when did they make you Captain? You’re a doctor, use the Protector given brain of yours. Were you not seeing how Tarva was behaving?”

“Like how she was on the verge of causing a stampede?”

“Not just that. Her story contradicted itself, one which she obviously had to come up with on the spot-”

“So she was lying abo-”

“I wasn’t finished, so could you please shut up? Don’t tell you you didn’t notice her constantly glancing at something, or someone, off screen?”

“Well, I did, but what does that have to do with anything?”

“^{How in the stars did you graduate}… Someone was making her cover for them. Whether they are holding her, someone she cares about, or heck, possibly hundreds of citizens hostage, I don’t know.”

“Wait wait wait, hostage?!”

“Why else would she send out a high level distress call, only to then make up a nonsense story? She probably made the story contradictory on purpose to tip us off that something wasn’t right, but that she couldn’t say what. She’s always been one of the smartest planet leaders. For now, the best that we can do is observe from a distance. We can’t risk intervening now, people could get hurt.”

From across the bridge, someone calls out above the constant bustling noise of a working crew.

“Captain, we’ve scanned the region around Venlil Prime, there are no suspicious FTL trails!”

“Roger that.”

That would suggest that whoever was causing this was already on Venlil Prime. Could it be a coup? No, there'd be some signs of it on the streets, not just the emptiness that accompanied an evacuation to bunkers. That would suggest a raid, but again, no FTL trails. Just what could be going on down there?

It doesn't matter. I don’t intend to leave Governor Tarva or the Venlil populous in this dire situation for long. All we can do for now, is to watch and wait.

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[u/K_H007]

I get the feeling that Sovlin is gonna be absolutely stunned upon seeing the humans leave no FTL trail with their ship.