Secrets Entrusted

Indoraptor Year 1262, June, Adar Flam Space Port orbiting the homeworld, Sol System...

"Alright, Ludvik. Have you retrieved the files?"

"They are here, sir, including the ones signed by Lemuria's Overseer."

Admiral Kalini Ender sat in his office accompanied by Raizex, studying the latest reports from Lemuria, or to be precise, the moon orbiting the colony world.

The colony's supervising overseer, Mrs. Q. Arienne, sent back some... disturbing accounts related to extraterrestrial civilization, claiming that ruins of an unknown civilization had been exhumed on the cold barren moon. Based on her archeologists' findings, the ruins were dated as far back as 6,250 years ago, and they consisted primarily of underground bases, a science facility, and small habitation centers on the moon's plateaus. Overseer Arienne supplied additional notes in her reports, citing how the now-lifeless moon orbiting Lemuria was presumed to be a garden world a long time ago, a humid jungle world according to her. It became devoid of life due to some kind of meteorite impacts from space... but as Raizex confided privately, the photographs of said craters were very likely caused by a probable orbital bombardment.

So far there had been two disagreeing opinions. One group voiced their interest in revealing the discovery to the public as soon as possible in order to gain momentum, a chance to further unite their species, they said. The opposition announced their interest in cracking the secrets of the ruins first, wanting to exhume all of its wealth of knowledge before telling the public of what they've found.

"By sharing this discovery to the Union's citizens, we shall be able to organize ourselves against larger threats that lurk in the void, now that we're aware that alien civilizations did exist," the first group said.

"We must carefully research this phenomenon before we do anything else, lest our citizens suddenly collapse into anarchy and splitting the Union as a whole upon the revelation of this data," the second group said.

Admiral Ender sighed. Despite his decision to stay abstain, deep down he too was afraid of the implications. For a long time in their history, the Indoraptors remained skeptical toward the idea of alien societies thriving beyond their world. That being said, life-sustaining planets were to be considered empty of sentient cultures and ripe for colonization. And if there were sentient aliens, they'd most likely be Stone Age primitives.

Now they've found alien ruins on a barren rock. Proof of intelligent life beyond Terra Prima.

Imagine what could happen if said ruins were on a garden planet.

Even worse, imagine if they discovered a functioning civilization rather than mere empty rubble.

This could lead to an all-out war.

"Request permission to speak freely, admiral," Raizex mustered some courage to voice his thoughts out loud. He might have been a fresh young man in the intelligence agency, but he was far from timid.

"Permission granted."

He never thought that the admiral would allow him freedom of speech so quickly, but he decided to use it nonetheless. "I personally think this discovery is crazy. I may not know much about the human's historical archives, but I don't believe that the humans ever mentioned anything about aliens. Heck, everything we know about aliens came from old cheesy movies and novels. Today, we have genuine proof of aliens existing in the distant past…"

"…And they could still be alive until this day and age, possibly studying us from afar with a cold and unsympathetic frame of mind," came the old Indoraptor's reply.

He clicked his tongue, "What we have in our hands today is one of the greatest scientific discoveries ever! The Union will thank you if we openly extend an invitation to all proficient academics to assist our research on the alien ruins, and spread the knowledge we retrieved for the good of us all. Think about the potential!" the admiral could vividly recall the enthusiasm in the first group's spokesperson.

"Which is exactly what we feared from it. The citizens will accuse us of hiding it since long ago. They won't believe it if we say we unearthed the ruins a mere weeks ago. Openly proclaiming it will bring all manners of societal disorder, and you know what will happen if our people created divisions that may weaken the Union," the opposing group's assertive voice held more weight in it, the admiral thought.

"Just think about the potential…" the admiral echoed the excited politicians' proclamation, unaware that Raizex could hear him.

"Pardon me, sir?"

"It's nothing," the admiral broke out of his stupor, clenching a fist, "I was just reminded of the debates surrounding the excavation's findings."

So far, no agreement was reached yet.

As of the following week, the Prime Minister and his minor Ministers were convening in Washington, New America, to determine the best course of action. One of the most vocal points they had been discussing was the need to prepare a form of a universal language translator. That was, of course, if the Union desired a peaceful and diplomatic coexistence with whatever species they met along the way. If an aggressive and xenophobic approach to first-contact scenarios were suggested in its place... then a translator wouldn't do much, if at all.

Overseer Arienne didn't voice her opinion yet. It was justified, as her job was to manage the colony's growth, not to dabble in politics. Overseers on the other three colonies were given word on this matter, albeit the files were mailed in red color marking to prevent low-clearance personnel to open the mails.

Growling in displeasure, the admiral returned the files to the young Indoraptor and turned off his computer. "Agent Ludvik, I want all similar information in Archive 4-C to be compressed and filed under the 'classified' label. Any other archives containing similar information must also be filed under the same label."

"Understood, sir."

He couldn't afford to let himself lose in the current upheaval, Admiral Ender sourly thought as he sent Raizex on his way to the Archive Sector.

With that topic put to aside, for the time being, the admiral continued to the next task; studying how the recruits behaved so far.

Two months of rigid training, plus another two months of actual fieldwork appeared to have stimulated certain responses to challenges in different individuals. Many were reassigned to new sectors different than the ones they started in, some by requesting it themselves, others by the recommendation of their commanding officers. Those who remained in the same sectors over the next months seemed to perform well. Ship maintaining, information analysis, training with guns and melee weapons, every recruit trained to hone their skills in whichever duty they accomplished.

One paper in particular stood out.

It was Raizex Ludvik's assessment file.

He expected the file to have the same boring assessment written on it. At first glance, the file spoke of the usual qualifications Raizex possessed, such as physical excellence, diligence, and resilience just like what the other recruits had. But as the admiral read further down, he realized that whoever was assessing the kid found that he owned a habit of asking one too many questions during seminars or training sessions. An interesting habit, but it caused some annoyance to his seniors since it painted the boy as an insufferable brat. The only reason why these seniors let him ask questions whenever he felt like it was the fact that the kid could be found writing his lessons on a diary book of a sort. He might read it out loud for himself, or he shared the lessons to his comrades in secret.

This kid here might potentially be a wild card. At best, Raizex could be depended on as a liaison between sectors, and at worst, he could turn into a snitch.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Some three days later, while conducting inspections across the space station, Admiral Ender stepped into the Archives Sector to find the room empty, save for the young Indoraptor who fell asleep in front of a computer, using his tail as a pillow. The people who were usually around in the compound were taking a break at the lunchroom and would return to the sector in twenty minutes.

"Ahem."

His little cough wasn't very loud that it woke the young dinosaur with a jolt, but Agent Ludvik immediately stirred up from his sleep, only really sitting up straight and at full attention when his eyes caught the older Indoraptor's silhouette.

"Admiral Ender, sir! Pardon me, sir, I was working on some data here when I fell asleep. Is there anything I can help you with?"

The admiral watched in discontent and curiosity as Raizex hastily cleaned up the table from papers and books filled with what appeared to be the anatomy of animals. The computer's screen, likewise, presented images of animal skeletons and fossils, as well as pictures of mummified corpses.

"These mummified bodies… Where are they from?"

"The ancient ruins on Tritus, sir, the barren moon orbiting Lemuria."

The admiral nodded as he continued asking "So the archaeologists managed to exhume a burial tomb somewhere within the ruined complex? What else have they found?"

Raizex forwarded a set of files for the admiral to read. The files spoke of bodies belonging to the ruins' long-dead inhabitants, embalmed to keep them from decomposing and buried within decorative tombs. The tombs themselves were located some thirty-five meters below the surface, inside a labyrinthine maze that thankfully contained no traps or any kind of danger. Of course, this data must've been the ones he told the kid to store in Archive 4-C's classified folders.

"Not much else, sir, aside from hidden rooms filled with some precious jewels," Raizex answered, tapping his scaly chin.

"How about the bodies? Have the archaeologists analyzed them?"

"They have, but the results were not final," Raizex answered while typing on the computer. The images that appeared shortly after on the screen were then enlarged so the older Indoraptor could see them clearly.

From what Admiral Ender could see, the head of the mummified bodies was round and primate-like, but he knew these creatures couldn't be primates due to the presence of tentacle-like protrusions on the top of their skulls. The torso parts of the bodies were similar to a human's torso, except that the arms were long and spindly, with three clawed fingers on each hand, one of which served as opposable thumbs. Their legs were digitigrade with three toes on each foot, although Raizex posited that those limbs could be paddle-like propellers back when the ancient aliens were still alive. The bodies possessed long-finned tails; yes, three long tails, each of them was as long as the tail of an average Indoraptor. An archaeologist left behind a small note, mentioning how he or she experienced difficulty in determining whether the ancient aliens were bipedal or quadruped in life.

Given the fish-like nature of the ancient corpses, one could argue that they came from an oceanic world. The problem was that Lemuria was primarily a tropical world, not oceanic. The planet's barren moon Tritus, while big and sturdy enough to hold big habitation centers, was speculated to not be fully oceanic as well circa six thousand years ago, if the word of the Union's top geologists could be believed. The ancient aliens couldn't be native settlers in the star system.

This left one possibility; whoever the ancient aliens were, they came from somewhere else.

Notes the young Indoraptor left strewn on his work table seemed to support the theory.

"How about their relics?" The admiral suddenly inquired, "Is there anything in the aliens' possession that resemble things like spacecraft, computers, communication device or the like?"

"There are some, sir, but they're mostly no longer functioning," Raizex replied. A new file he opened for the older Indoraptor detailed an extensive record of the findings; a feverish attempt by the archaeologists to document all relics they've exhumed after analyzing the mummies. As of late, beyond basic types of machinery like power plants, computer-like devices, and some objects which must've been sacred scriptures written on stone tablets, there was nothing out of ordinary in the ruined complex… or so the data said. Certain passages in the files were suspiciously worded to look brief and clinical.

"Agent Ludvik, I want you to answer this question truthfully; has anyone else studied the excavation files?" The admiral said.

"There were three to four other people who studied this data, sir. They all work under a female specialist's supervision. Umi, if the name's correct."

The admiral nodded, pleased to know that his most trusted informant was keeping the discovery under wraps. He did instruct the woman to prevent privy eyes from asking too much about the excavation project. The news must not be broken out unless Admiral Ender received the order directly from the Prime Minister himself.

"Very good. However, I must implore you not to write this knowledge down in your diary, and I forbid you from sharing it with anyone who is not in the know. Do you understand?"

"Understood, sir."

"Good, now hide those papers or burn them before you leave. You can't afford to have others read it," the admiral said with a sharp glance as he walked out of the Archive Sector.