Chapter 1: An imminent encounter

'Heirarch, there appears to be a human vessel drifting in the outer reaches of our solar system.' an attending officer informed him.

'Has there been any attempted contact?' Artanis inquired, slightly confused by this developement. After the final battle with Amon in the void, they have had next to no contact with humans after Raynor's dissapearance. 'Perhaps we are to ask the terrans if they know of this vessel, before taking any immediate action.'

'No heirarch, it seems that there is an interfering field surrounding the vessel that is preventing us from even obtaining the simplest scan so we would be describing something we do not know of. However what intrigues me the most is the psionic emissions coming from it. A pulse of psionic energy every 10 seconds from outside the field.' the attending officer informed him.

'That is rather unusual... Prepare my vessel, I shall investigate this further myself.' A dampening field and a psionic pulse outside the field. I wonder whats the meaning of this. Even after all these years it seems that there are still things we do not know, or events that surprise even the most seasoned leaders. I only hope that nothing goes wrong, like so many things before.

'I have never seen this type of vessel before. It does not match any previously encountered vessel. Scan it for signs of life.' Artanis ordered.

'Heirarch the field is preventing us from scanning for life forms, but there are two constant high magnitude stream of data eminating from one of the lower decks near what seems to be their docking bay and one close to the command bridge. I cannnot decypher any of it, but the amount of data and its complexity seems to be similar to the purifiers'.' The communications officer explained rather enthusiasticly.

'Understood, i will need 6 more templar to accompany me to the ship. Once you find templar willing to do this alert them to go to the warp platform.' Artanis stated, as he was going to prepare for boarding. However an eerie feeling had started to develop in his mind. Is it possible that the humans have developed such technology so fast? It has barely been 8 years since the End war. As Raynor would say: Only one way to find out...

- Meanwhile aboard the science vessel-

"Zed, how long untill we get usable results? It's been 65 years since my father started this journey and 30 years since i took over, and we are pretty much out of options. Will you be able to make a serum that combines the zerg genome adaptivity and regenerative capabilities with that of humans with what we have left or will we have to make a stop..."

"No Cortana we needn't do that. Know that Guliwer's work will not be in vain. I am begining the final extraction process, it should be done within at most 10 minutes. As always no guarantees can be made wether it will work or not, so if you'd like to wait untill we have someone to test it onto to ensure success..."

"That is not an option Zed, I don't have much time remaining and i'd like to see this project finished. When It's finished please report to the observation deck." Cortana informed. It has been a long journey and she had been mesmerised bu her father's ideals, plus the probability of being an immortal is something she liked greatly. One thing did trouble her... Why did her father completely bar that woman from being experimented on? Why shove her in cryo?

"I know you dislike tedious questions, but what are we going to do about Aerowen Gale?" Zed asked as if he had just read her mind. "Ever since your father put her in cryo, Hale has been incredibly keen on keeping us out of that part of the ship. and the squads we sent down there were all obliterated, tho it seems that he cannot bypass the conditional lockdown on neither his nor her authority. " Zed inquired.

"As far as my father told me she was one of the people he really wanted to make immortal, but because my father also knew that she would never agree to it, he had her locked in cryo. We've lost alot of good men to her damned bot and I believe that counts as treason, so once we are done, we'll escape via the emergency cruiser and set this place to self destruct." Cortana stated matter-o-factly. Her father admired Aerowen greatly, and he often said that she was the one who inspired him to start this project. Because he was a frail man, and she was a strong genius who had such a grasp on knowledge that he had never heard of before. He desperately wanted to learn from her, but he himself knew that the time he had left, would never suffice to obtain such clarity.

"As you wish Cortana" Zed replied continuing the final stages required to make the serum. Her father had created him inspired by Aerowen's Hale. Guliwer, much like Aerowen, created him as a replica of someone but Guliwer has never told him who he was modeled after and he had not created him with a free will. He was bound by directives and millions of command lines binding him to his bloodline. Cortana hated Aerowen because her father favored Aerowen over herself. Zed hated Aerowen because had she never existed, he wouldn't have come to be.

It was only by blind luck that they weren't at all aware of the protoss ship approaching them. or the signals that Aerowen seemed to unconsciously emmit.