OK ladies and gents here is the fifth chapter of the Asclepheus and I hope you enjoy it.


Chapter 5: Welcome to the Asclepheus

Human year: 2200 AD

The room was enthralled in darkness and the ship's engines could be heard humming throughout the entire ship, this room however was stationed at a part of the ship where the humming could be heard the least, for this room was that of one of the ships most important crew members.

Professor Norma Rockwell was sleeping soundly in her bed; her brown hair with blonde streaks was spread across the pillow messily as she snored loudly. The door to the room opened and another woman came in with a spoon and a frying pan, she slowly walked into the centre of the room and started hitting the pan repeatedly with a spoon causing a loud metallic clanking to fill the room.

Norma instantly jolted up as her head jolted from side to side, the room then lit up showing the white sterile surroundings fitting a high class room of that era. The woman who woke Norma up was none other than Sophie who had a very annoyed look on her face; she placed the spoon and frying pan down and retrieved the notepad she always kept with her.

"Sophie, what the hell?" Norma asked rubbing her eyes.

"It's half past 11 Norma" the American blonde said, Norma's eyes widened and she leapt from bed and started getting dressed.

"Why didn't you wake me up earlier?!" Norma shouted as she tied her hair into a ponytail

"I didn't think you would need me to professor, seeing as how exited you get with inspections I thought you would have woken up by now…..then again you do often sleep in when…..*sigh* playing strip poker with captain grey and his lieutenants" Sophie groaned at the last part.

"Hey I couldn't help myself….besides didn't you see the captain face when he had to take his boxers off?" Norma laughed at remembering the veteran captains face when he and his men got their arses handed to them by Norma.

"No but I did see his face when he found out you used your pet to look at their hands when playing, I'm pretty sure he was thinking of shooting that dam thing" Sophie said internally smiling as the thought of that dam primate getting blown to smithereens.

"It's called using what you have at your disposal Sophie, I wouldn't have to use Dexter if Captain Grey wasn't using his cybernetic eye" Norma said justifying her actions

"He wasn't using his cybernetic eye!"

"And that's why I won" Norma smiled as she finished getting dressed

Sophie decided to give up, Norma may have been one of the most intelligent people on the ship but she could be stubborn as an OX sometimes.

"Well what are we waiting for...oh yeah, DEXTER!" Norma called her flying capuchin who flew down and sat on her shoulder giving a grin that looked too big for his face.

"Well let's go my dear Sophie" Norma said with a huge smile as she and Sophie left the room.

"So what's first on the agenda?" Norma asked as Sophie looked at her notepad

"Well the captain requested the presence of the head scientists on the bridge"

"What for?"

"He didn't say, only that it was of the upmost importance"

"He has to be dramatic about everything doesn't he?"

"He's the captain…it's his job"


Captain Grey was waiting at the bridge of the Asclepheus with a few of the head scientists of the project along with Captain Azarov who were also waiting patiently for one more vital member of the crew.

"Does it usually take her this long to arrive?" Captain Grey asked while fixing the collar on his officers' vest, the medals jangling as he did.

"Don't worry Captain I'm sure she is on her way this instant" said one man who was obviously one of the head scientists, this man looked to be in his mid-50's yet still managed a slim build befitting a researcher, this man's name was David Isenberg and he was the head scientist of the Asclepheus project.

As if on cue the doors to the bridge opened up to reveal Norma with Dexter on her shoulder and Sophie looking out of breath, Norma didn't look tired at all and in fact looked kind of calm and collected. Not many people would know by looking at her but Norma was a very fast runner and had enough stamina to back it up.

"Ah Professor Rockwell, glad to see you could make it" Captain Azarov said as she smiled to Norma

"I'm sorry if I'm a bit late, but I just had to check on the Aurelian Skarnaks we picked up last week" Norma said, the Skarnaks were one of the newest subjects on board the ship and were magnificent in the eyes of a Xenobiologist like Norma. Skarnaks were large arthropods that had the physiology of scorpions, lobsters and centipedes; they were about as tall as a man when they weren't arched up. They didn't have eyes to speak of and located their prey through vibrations, though the strangest thing about them was the fact that they shredded their prey with their thousands of rows or razor sharp rotating teeth (…..yes that's right….rotating…..teeth…..fucking awesome) leaving nothing but a red mist that would be ejected through the vents on its carapace.

"You are obsessed with those things" one of the male scientists said

"I'm fairly sure it's my job to be obsessed with them, you on the over hand I'm not so sure about" Norma said as she walked up to take a seat

"I'm just concerned that if given the chance they would tear everyone to shreds" the scientist said folding his arms

"So would a lot of the alien species on this ship…it's not their fault the think we look tasty" Norma said, in her heart Norma loved every part of her job aboard this ship and loved every species they had just as much, though this didn't mean she was blind to how dangerous they could be if they got loose.

"Have you finished?" Captain Grey asked the scientists stopping their little squabble.

"Good, now I guess you are wondering why I called you all up here on a day like inspection day, instead of cataloguing and studying the hundreds of species on board like you are supposed to, I have you gathered here to tell you a piece of information that may change our species outlook on the universe forever" the Captain said being as thematic as he possibly could, David raised his hand to ask a question.

"I'm sorry Captain, but what could be more important to do with the mission than studying the creatures we have picked up?" David asked

"The binary transmission" the Captain said quickly

"Bullshit….there isn't any way anything came back, it was a stupid idea sending it out in the first place" one of the female scientists said

"We received a reply in binary this morning and the ships computer translated it as something not human or Yautja" the Captain said, this silenced the scientists and even Captain Azarov who all had looks on their faces that displayed a mix of confusion and excitement, the latter being Norma.

"What does the message say?" Norma asked with an upbeat tone

"the message translates as this 'to the representatives of the human race, we mean you no harm or violence and hope to extend a hand in friendship, our species is known as the Kamads and as you read this message we will have sent two representatives of our species. We would greatly appreciate it if you make their stay as comfortable as you possibly can as they will be greatly suspicious of you at first, they shall allow you to test their physical capabilities and will answer any questions you send their way to show you our faith in you. Expect their arrival soon as it won't take them long to arrive'"

Norma felt her heart jolt in pure excitement as the message was read out while many of the other scientist's reactions weren't as readable.

"A….sentient…race?" David asked in almost a whisper of a voice, he was astonished as were the other scientists, in the years they had spent on the Asclepheus their expectations of reaching a sentient race were weakening every day, At this point it was considered an almost impossibility.

"It can't be" a male scientist said in an almost breathless voice

"It has to be…what else could explain that?" a female scientists asked

"Professor Rockwell care to give us your opinion?" Captain Azarov said breaking Norma out of her trance

"Well….I think that this…is fucking awesome!" Norma exclaimed after a few pauses

"Just think of it, humanities first contact with a non-violent species…I think the captain was right when he said this could chance our view on the universe, just think of all we could learn from them" Norma was obviously exited and Sophie had never seen her this way before at least not to this extent.

"There isn't any guarantee that this species is not violent Professor" Azarov said

"In the event that they are, isn't it your job to deal with them?" one of the other scientists asked

"Yes it is but we won't be held responsible for your safety if you let these 'Kamads' get too close and show their true intentions" Captain Grey said sternly

"I don't think so Captain, I believe that if the Kamads meant us harm they would sent us a message telling us that they were going to arrive soon, but if you'll excuse me I have things to attend to" Norma said as she rose from her seat and went to leave

"Attend to what?" David asked

"In case you didn't notice Professor….we have guests to prepare for" Norma said with a bright smile as she left the room followed by Sophie.

Norma and Sophie then came to one of the ship's trams, the tram system of the ship was a necessity due to the ship's colossal size, and the trams were a fast and efficient means of transporting the crew around the ship with minimal fuss.

"Do you really mean what you said? I think that Captain Azarov might be right about them being hostile" Sophie said clutching her notepad as always.

"Stop being so paranoid Sophie, I believe wholeheartedly that this will be one of humanities key defining moments" Norma said optimistically.

'I can't believe that I'm going to be meeting sentient alien life forms soon, mom and dad would be so proud' Norma thought, she was going to have a blast running tests on the Kamads, of course she would have to make sure that the tests weren't going to hurt the Kamads….hell she had to find out if Kamads had pain receptors….she didn't even know what they would act or look like, for all she could know they could be ethereal beings of energy or even sentient machines, hell they could look like the stereotypical star trek aliens that looked pretty much human except for elf ears.

"My dear Sophie, could you please clear my schedule and dedicate it solely for preparing for our guests arrival?" Norma asked her assistant.

"Everything…..are you ok Norma?" Sophie asked, Norma never dedicated this much time to anything but her research but this seemed compulsive to say the least.

"I'm better than ok Sophie, I am as happy as can be, I just can't wait to meet them, I'm just getting giddy from wondering how wise and intelligent they will be" Norma was simply ecstatic at the news and nothing was going to dampen her spirits.


*Meanwhile a few light-years away

"It makes you look like the arse end of a Kree-van" Eli said bluntly as Rezeal was trying on some formal robes for the first contact with the humans.

"Really? Because I think it makes me look quite dashing" Rezeal said as he flicked the robes around.

"Trust me Rez, I'm the son of the emperor and I know shit robes when I see them, I'm very sure that the Aralians that sold you those saw you coming" Eli said as he eyed his friends very bizarre ware.

"What do you suggest we wear then?" Rezeal asked

"I suggest we do a dramatic reveal, we lower the ramp, and fog comes out as does a blinding light and we emerge in our full armour" Eli said leaving Rezeal with a pause

"…where in the nine hell's did get that from?" Rezeal asked

"I've been looking at many of the radio signals we have intercepted from the humans over the years and discovered this in things humans call 'films' which are basically works of fiction in a visual medium" Eli said letting his friend make a statement

"They sound more advanced than I thought"

"the strange thing is that in the films where they supposedly make first contact with an alien race, the race in question emerges from a Smokey brightly lit ship and reveal themselves as dramatically as possible" Eli explained

"…that sounds very very improbable" Rezeal retorted after a long pause

"Dam straight it does" Eli immediately replied

"Have you managed to get a few of their languages down? Because I don't want to bust out the extrapolator" Rezeal said rubbing the back of his neck, the extrapolator basically took a sample of a language and the species speaking it its facial reactions, when these were processed a full knowledge of the language would then be transplanted directly into the Kamads brain stem via the back of the neck instantly letting them learn the language, Kamads were among the only races that could use the extrapolator due to their rapid healing ability.

"Well I've picked up English, Japanese and Russian, by the time we arrive I will have learnt French, Spanish, German and Chinese" Eli said

"How many languages is it you know right now?" Rezeal asked

"Five hundred and thirty eight and counting" Eli said with pride in his voice, due to his position as an Elite and future emperor it really helped to know the languages of the people he would be protecting, we was basically a lingual genius while Rezeal only knew the languages he needed to know on the current mission.

"Well let me know how that goes, I might as well get changed back into my gear if we aren't going to go with the robes then" Rezeal said as he went into the back segment of the ship

"Have fun with that" Eli said as he kept his eyes fixed on the console, on the console was a translation program that Kamad Elites used to transfer languages straight to their Brainstems, this method was easier and less painful than using an extrapolator due to the fact that it slowly transferred information and didn't have to be violently inserted into the Elites neck.

Eli felt himself getting tired as his eyes got heavier, he had been transferring information to his brain for 9 hours straight without any rest, and he was going to do his father proud by being the best ambassador he could be. This meant his communication skills had to be at the peak efficiency, through studying these Human 'films' he had found that the main thing that caused aliens to be very unsociable was because they couldn't understand human sayings and expressions so he wasn't just transferring knowledge of languages but expressions as well.

Eli's eyes then shut slowly as he drifted off into his dreams, Kamads didn't sleep quite the same way humans did, Kamads didn't sleep as often as Humans but when they did sleep they would nod of for twice as long, it was probably due to the Kamads longevity and large amounts stamina that allowed them the ability to stay active for days at a time without so much as getting tired.

Eli's dreams where strange indeed even for a Kamad, of course Kamads didn't dream of the same stuff humans would due to their very different natures, at heart humans were very kind and caring due to the fact they were mammals and family creatures that survived through making communities while Kamads were predators at heart and evolved through becoming more effective killers, this didn't mean Kamads couldn't be kind and caring but it was just that Kamads only began taking care of each other and forming family groups once they became advanced enough.

Though those times were far behind them and the Kamads had become a respected race in the galactic community. Kamad dreams were mostly made up of them fantasizing about hunting down and tearing apart smaller prey creatures or fighting in mighty battles, Eli's dreams however felt much different, they involved voices he never heard, places he had never been and people he had never met, He had spoken with his father about these dreams and had gotten nowhere.


*Eli's dream

"Push, just keep pushing!" a female voice said urgently

"Aaaaaaaaaaagh!" a woman screamed

"Come on dear keep pushing it will be over soon!" a male voice said with a worried tone

"Aaaaaaaaaaagh!" the woman screamed, the sound of a child screaming

"It's a girl!" the first voice said

"Did you hear that baby it's a….Sandra...Sandra?!" the male voice voce asked before breaking out into a series of sobs and cry's

A new series of sounds then proceeded; it was that of a woman panting with that of screaming in the background along with a series of screeches and bloodcurdling yells.

"Just stay here and don't make a sound!" a woman's voice said in a firm tone, she was obviously out of breath

"Mom where's dad?" the voice of a little boy asked

"Don't worry daddy's fine….daddy's fine" the woman's voice said as if she was going to burst into tears at any moment, Eli could tell by that tone that she was lying

There was then the sound of a door closing followed close by the woman's screams as it sounded like she was being dragged away, there was a long pause before the sound of the little boy crying was heard.


*dream end

Before the dream could get any stranger Eli felt something shaking him awake, he looked over his shoulder to see Rezeal standing there with a worried look on his face.

"Was it the dream again?" Rezeal asked

"Yeah….how did you know?" Eli said groggily

"You always drool when it's that dream" Rezeal stated bluntly

"…you watch me sleep?" Eli asked wide eyed

"Well we did spend time as roommates in collage"

"….collage...that's a human word, have you been transferring info while I was asleep?"

"This is my mission too my friend, I have to pull my weight around as well" Rezeal said after letting out a yawn, Eli looked to Rezeal's neck and saw a few wires sticking out of the nape of his neck, a classic sign that an Elite was transferring info.

Eli felt the back of his neck to find that the wires had been removed from him and is neck was smooth.

"You were going a bit over board with the Transferring, so I removed the wires and logged myself in" Rezeal said pointing a thumb to his nape.

"I reckon I got my fill of info anyway" Eli said as he rose up, he would need to get a bit of sleep to allow is brain time to adapt and process the new information he had transferred into it, this was a normal procedure when transferring info as it was a taxing process on the brain.

"Trust me Rez…these humans have a lot of strange saying to get through, be sure to keep an open mind and don't reject anything or your brain will fry" Eli said leaving the room

"Don't worry I always have an open mind" Rezeal stated

"Yeah and that's why you don't have a mate yet"

"Neither do you!" Rezeal shouted back

"Blame that on lack of trying!" Eli said causing the both of them to chuckle.


Norma had just finished preparing all the necessary tests and exercises for the aliens when they arrived; she had reaction time tests and exercises that would determine their strength and speed in comparison to that of a human.

"Are you sure they're gonna mind that the first thing we do is run tests on them?" Sophie asked from behind

"Sophie I'm sure that an advanced alien race wouldn't mind a few medical examinations to make sure they are safe around us, trust me it's completely necessary"

"You call a dental examination necessary?"

"….yeah" Norma said after a pause of thought

"Sometimes I wonder how I ended up being your assistant" Sophie sighed

"Can you blame me for being this exited Sophie? It's the first time humanity actually has a chance to join a bigger universe, humans have dreamt of this moment for hundreds of years and we finally get to witness it first hand, don't you think that makes us the luckiest humans alive?" Norma said, Sophie didn't think it meant this much to her and was honestly surprised

"Well I never really thought about it like that, I always tried to live in the present so I never thought about the future like that" Sophie said solemnly

"You should talk about yourself a bit more" Norma said putting a hand on Sophie's shoulder.

"Never have the time to, besides it's not like anyone would be interested"

"I would be" Norma said with a smile

"Don't you have tests and stuff to prepare?"

"Oh shit I do!" Norma said as she went back to what she was doing before, Sophie simply stood there and let out a breath before going to help her out.


Meanwhile in another area of the ship, deep down in the cooling units where no one ever goes due to the freezing temperatures, a man was walking through the dark recesses of the cooling units. This man was wearing a suit that engineers used when doing construction or maintenance in the cooler parts of the ship or on the exteriors.

The man then came to a door that was locked with an old age keypad, he typed in the ode and the door hissed open giving the man enough time to get in and shut the door behind him. This room was larger and more spacious and in the centre were three unopened cryo-tubes, the man then took off his suit to reveal a man in his mid-30's with brown spiky hair wearing a lab coat, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a Rubix cube like object and set it on the floor.

He pressed a few of the squares on the cube and a few jets of light shot out before contrasting themselves into the shape of a human, the hologram then shaped itself into the image of a man in his 60's.

"Doctor Blair" the hologram nodded

"Mr Weyland" the man nodded back

"Did you receive the package?" Weyland asked

Blair looked at the three cryo-tubes and replied in kind "yes sir, I received the packages without a fuss, no one suspects a thing, believe me it isn't that hard to hide these in a ship this big"

"Very good, have there been any complications?" Weyland asked, Blair scratched his head and let out a long sigh.

"We received a transmission from another species" Blair let out

"What… Are you saying you received a message from another alien race?" Weyland asked

"Yes, everyone knows this and they will arrive soon…" Blair said to get interrupted by Weyland violently coughing and spluttering all over the place, he held a hand to his mouth and quickly regained his composure.

"It doesn't matter, what matters is that you proceed with the plan, remember what you have to do and don't let anyone stop you" Weyland said with a weak voice as he rubbed his mouth with a white cloth.

"Are you sure you are alright sir?"

"I'm fine; you just concentrate on your part!" Weyland half shouted

"…yes sir" Blair said as Weyland's hologram disappeared and the lights on the cube went out.

Blair retrieved the cube and pocketed it before going over to the middle cryo-tube, he wiped the condensation off of the glass and looked into it, lying there was the figure of a woman wearing a full body latex outfit that had covered everything but her chest, she had short blond hair but her facial features couldn't be made out due to being covered by a large spiked face hugger.

The face hugger was latched on her tightly and firmly, this one was easily larger than the other two and the spikes on it gave the impression that the embryo was greater than that of the others.

"I'm sorry about this miss, but your death will be worth it…you on the other hand your majesty, I hope you like your new nest….I picked it out specially for you" Blair whispered with a smile on his face.

Blair typed a code into the cryo-tubes which opened up with a hiss, the face hugger began slightly twitching and their tails slid tighter around their hosts neck's, Blair put his suit back on and before he put his helmet on he looked at the squirming face huggers and smiled.

"Sleep tight" he said before putting the helmet on and leaving the room.


"Captain I'm picking up something" one of the pilots of the Quatermaine said to the captain

"What is it…meteors?" the Captain asked

"No sir the movements are all wrong for a Meteor, its running on its own energy"

"Is it human or Yautja?" the Captain asked once again

"…neither sir"

"Alert the Asclepheus and tell them to get ready, we have visitors" the captain said rising from his seat.


Everyone was gathered in the docking bay of the Asclepheus, Norma with Dexter in her shoulder, Sophie, Captain Azarov, Captain Grey, Professor Isenberg and even Doctor Blair. Many of the scientists and even some engineers were present, not to mention a few marines here and there with pulse rifles at the ready just in case things went south.

"Now remember everyone, no sudden movements or loud noises, they might be very very sensitive" Norma said loudly for everyone to hear.

"Marines don't fire unless on my command, and remember not to point your weapons directly at them, they might see it as a threat or challenge" Grey said in a commanding tone.

The ship came in slow and it obviously wasn't a Yautja or a human ship due to the more streamlined appearance, the ship was very large and since the message said only two representatives were coming the kamads must be very large as well.

The ship came in silently which clearly showed how advanced these beings were due to the fact that human ships made a ton of sound when docking.

The ship landed with a loud clank and the marines present seemed to tense up and get a steady grip of their pulse rifles.

What seemed to be a landing ramp slowly extended from the ship's side, Norma couldn't be more exited as the ramp slowly touched the floor, the moment the ramp touched down the doors of the ship opened up and a blinding light shone from the opened doors showing two very large humanoid silhouettes.

The two figures slowly began walking down the ramp, their steel plated boots making clanking noises as they did, these figures looked similar but also individual, they were both the same size at around 9 feet tall, one had long white dreadlocks reaching around the back of its shoulder blades, the other had dreadlocks of the same length but only black. The one with the white dreadlocks had a long black leather coat and was heavily armoured from head to toe and had two katanas on his hips, the other had a long red leather coat with black markings and his armour was black instead of the silver coloured armour the other wore, this on also had a short sword and a strange looking cross between a knife and a hook.

The two figures wore strange helmets that looked like they were parts of the armour; the helmets fit snuggly against their heads and let their dreadlocks hang freely, the visors were only around what was presumably the eye area and had parts of the helmet reaching out at the nose area (if have trouble imagining the helms they basically look like Uruk-hai helmets without the frills on the tops).

The two reached the end of the ramp and towered over all the humans present, Norma was astounded at how at full height she only reached these creatures waists, many of the humans saw this feature as very threatening as when humans reached that height they looked either very skinny and disproportionate or they would develop walking problems while these giants were perfectly proportionate and it was a little unnerving.

Norma then noticed how these beings had reptilian tails swishing freely behind them and almost gave out a little exited scream like a fangirl, the one with Black Dreadlocks noticed this and tilted his head in a confused fashion before turning to the other one and murmuring in a strange alien dialect.

"Yukon Petife Ulo Aiz Shufiono Zan Alla Trial" (the short one is staring at our tails) Rezeal said in his native tongue

"Ain Shala Allu Dunnono Yakal Yukola Raik Shufo Petife" (in case you didn't notice they are all short) Eli retorted in Kamad

Captain Grey would have stepped forward to greet them if Norma hadn't beaten him to the punch line and stood directly in front of them and held her hand out smiling.

"Hello, I'm Professor Norma Rockwell, and welcome to the Asclepheus" She said with a smile, Captain Grey and many of the other were wide eyed at how she just approached the nine foot tall alien giants so cheerfully.

Eli's helmet then began to retract into the neck piece of his Armour until his face was revealed, well half of his face was covered by the red and white bandana he usually wore but the humans were more fixated on his golden reptilian eyes which glittered in the light, he then gave an unmistakable smile and extended his hand and took hers and shook it.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Ms Rockwell, I'm Eli and this is Rezeal, we represent the Kamad Empire in these matters" Eli said in almost perfect English, every single human present looked like their lower jaws could fall off, Norma simply smiled the biggest smile she could muster as sheer excitement welled up inside her.

Things aboard the Asclepheus were officially on a whole new level aboard weird and these two alien giants weren't the only things that were the cause of it.


Phew so there we go ladies and gents, the first real chapter of the story and let me tell you it was hell to wright. So I want to know what you guys think and that means stuff like:

What the fuck was Eli dreaming about?

What did you think of the way I introduce the Xeno's on board?

Did you find my description of what Eli and Rezeal were wearing helpful?

What did you think in general?

Illustrations of Eli, Rezeal and the Aurelian Skarnak are on the deviant art page of my friend artisticaldarkness.

Please leave a review/comment or simply PM me on what you thought

Next time - Chapter 6: if it bleeds….then we can piss it off