The post lamp flickered right beneath the half-moon’s light. The old man sat comfortably on the small wooden bench as he always did, right across his beautiful home. It was quite late and the lights within the house were silently getting put out. But you could still hear the children’s voices, arguing whether it was time for bed or not as their mother was trying to desperately tuck them in. The old man smiled whilst watching his family going through their daily routine. The light footsteps signaled the end of his relaxation, the man who accompanied the footsteps, looked young and by all standards good looking.  Straight hair on the color of the sand in the evening fell short beneath his gray hat, his muscles seemed the work of many years, not impressive but not undistinguishable either.

His blue trench coat waved behind him.

''every time i look at the stars I notice more and more, they never end'' the old man said as the young man came closer, ''sometimes I think that's how everyday life is; you always notice something new, more and more come into your horizon forming infinity. While man doesn't realize no matter how far   he gets or achieves, he is only a tiny part of infinity. Right next to nothing...still they strife their best to get the ‘nothing’, how tragic''. He took a sip out of his tea and he looked at the man who was taking a sit right next to him.

 ''You grew into a philosophically senile old man’ ‘the young man said and he

stared towards the sight of the Old man’s admiration.

 ‘‘Old age changes people, at least some of us'' He said amused turning to face the young man.” ‘’You took your sweet time coming here, didn’t you?’’

“I run into a situation. But I am here now’’

The old man nodded whilst still sipping his warm tea.

 ‘’you remember when we went through the asteroid belt near orion? I swear you were screaming like a baby, now I think that wouldn’t even faze you’’, the old man cracked a smile.

‘’ I did not scream, you were imagining things cause you were too shaky yourself, you always said afterwards

that you would never go to a mission on the north end’’ answering back with a sweet smile of his own, ‘’but as much as I want to say our experiences don’t make who we are, I would be lying my old friend’’.

The old man looked saddened like a man about to shed a tear for a sweet memory that is lost ‘’Why couldn’t you let that wound close? Why do you have to keep picking it and make it fester?’’ He turned to young man and grabbed his forearm. ‘’Let me go my friend, give me what was not given to you, I will never forget

it. I have grandchildren waiting for me, I love them and I love my life’’. His eyes focused on him in a pleading display.

‘’You want happiness, which I was denied from, and you want your life, which was denied from me as well. I can give both to you my friend, I can forgive you for what you did to me that is very easy indeed.’’ A crooked smile formed in the young man’s mouth ‘’but... ’’ In a swift notion he took out the knife his years

of training did not allow him to miss, burning into his mind all the fatal points, one second later the knife rested in the soft spot between  ribs followed by a silent grunt . ‘’I can’t forgive what you did to our brother’’. His mouth muscles tensed as he pronounced the words.  A puddle of the old man’s blood started gathering before him as he watched his own life sipping away from him, his cane dropped with a resounding clang, his gaze fixed one last time on the young man.

 ‘’How does it taste? ‘‘. He said while spitting blood. ‘’Is this blood finally enough for you?’’ Before his body even hit the pavement, the young man disappeared into the shadows whence he came.

September 14, 2167 (Earth time)

  Planet

Nevul of the system of Asteros 400 million light years away from earth

A foggy planet like Nevul had nothing to offer to the everyday galaxy tourist, thick clouds in the sky and dust covering the ground. A planet abandoned for years, and yet a shuttle was rapidly leaving behind the needle mother-craft and was heading into Nevul’s atmosphere. Tera almost fell forward getting bumped from

two different directions, two hundred men were smashed together in the uncomfortable confounded space of the shuttle. Tera was looking through the thick glass of the craft's window, he tightened his space suit belt, the rigid protective helmet already stood upon his shoulders, and he looked around, and was surprised that most already finished their preparations, standing in their green-brown metal suits, with the wide shoulder pads offering easier rotation of limps.

Loud voices came from a few meters away, another idiotic disagreement ensued ‘’what’s so great about

Mars‘’ Tera turned his head to his fellow comrades and sighed to the familiar sight, Ferrow and Telon seemed heated while they were having one of their usual debates.

‘’The bars on the Sarker city of course’’ .  Barked Telon, receiving some acknowledging nods from the rest of the squad.

‘’You already forgot about Pluto? Reremos got so drunk that he almost started a duel right

then and there with a Plutonian.’’

The guys around started laughing recalling that surreal moment, they continued their debate undisturbed by the movements of the vessel which was rocking from side to side, while Tera’s face turned green, hitting against what he thought was a brick wall .

‘‘Hey now, we might lose you before we even land’’ Eros said grinning; Tera frowned to that, spreading Eros’s grin even further.

  Eros was the tallest and the beefiest on this aircraft standing more than two metes tall and the serious characteristics of an agitated rhino, with his well-maintained, newly trimmed beard and honey colored eyes he looked quite intimidating but in reality he was more like a big teddy bear. Eros never sought out promotion and was never given a chance for the reason that his mellow temperament most of the times outshined his other military characteristics. ‘’I’ll be fine’’ Tera whispered and stumbled to the other end of the vessel where his friend’s bad mood could be felt from miles away. His grim expression covered his face behind that big helmet, his brother in arms Reremos was pouting in one corner of the shuttle completely absorbed in his own thoughts.  He had his head turned presenting his characteristic cheek scar, the result of an infiltration of one of Nerus's base.

‘’you seem pale, what’s troubling you? Is it Hata again? ‘‘Tera said.

 ''well i do miss her’ ‘said smiling sadly, reminiscing about his fiancé. ''but it's not that, i have a bad feeling about this mission, I heard the captain talking to the transmitter earlier it seems that what we are here on another goose chase of the council, you know how often these  expeditions turn to madness’'.

 Tera looked at him with astonishment ’’really? It was barely a yellow alert mission, I don’t see us getting in trouble in this almost desolated planet, light up Rem this is going to be one of those boring completely blow-your-brains out mission’’ he said smiling patting his friend on the shoulder hearing the a chink sound of metal hitting on metal.  Eses, who was listening to the conversation, looked up ’’you humans love your secrets don’t you?''

Few heads turned to look at their unfitting guest.  Eses was the only none-earthling above the craft, his bluish skin and triangular characteristics who were some of the distinctive features of a Marener made him noticeable among the members of the squad. Eses was also the only planetary geologist above the craft making him really important for the mission at hand for his knowledge and also for diplomatic reasons.  Eros looked at him frowning, sometimes his directedness made everyone uncomfortable.

 ''Eses, I do not know how the Mareners do it, but in earth soldiers do as told, we just want to get home whole, right boys?’’ Relon said his words followed by shouts of agreement. That seemed to put Eses in his place; he lost interest and turned his attention toward the window.

     Finally the craft was ready to land; there was much movement above the craft everyone prepared for the landing the captain then stood in front of the only exit imposing his presence upon everyone aboard.

''1 minute to landing'' the pilot shouted from the pit. ‘‘Gentlemen’’ his voice echoing throughout the narrow chamber ‘’ we went through some dangerous missions together this is just another one of those cases, we are about to enter one of the most dangerous planets of the system of Asteros’’ the captain said loudly but firmly.

''No mistakes shall be allowed, as always your lives are on the line but this time earth is more than in need of your services’ ‘he paused for a second ''Our mission is simple: find the buried side, retrieve the package and get the hell out of here, the only thing that stand between us and the goal is some tribal squads of Nevulers who are at their wits end, there is zero room for failure, is that understood?’’.

 ''YES SIR'' the soldiers shouted in unison.

 ''Let's get moving then, go, go’’.

 Tera turned his sight towards the abandoned base as he took his first steps upon the dry soil of this planet. ‘‘this base is abandoned for decades, can't be in any worse state'' said Eros their heavy footing was buried in the sandy environment.

 The abraded flags set around the perimeter were waving frantically, and the vehicles parked outside had already turned into nothing more than scrap metal, the squad gathered around the front gate which was essentially a hangar not big enough to fit their own vessel.  The squad was quick on its feet, with captain’s directions to lead the way the base was about to find its former glory again, moving of supplies, establishing positions around the base and a scouting team was assembled. Safety was the earth's army first priority wherever they were.

''Eros I want you here in the base; me and thirty more units we are going to start the search, Eses you are to lead our search, I want everyone around Eses whatever happens during our search Eses should be kept safe no matter what, Ferow, Turio and Lakar you are coming with me and now how about some volunteers'' 20 hands were raised almost immediately it was obvious that some tedious tasks awaited the rest of the team.

 ''Tera why don't you go as well? Your sniper skills might be in need’’.

‘’I doubt it, they are just searching for some old remnants’’.

‘’ Oh then you would prefer to follow me on the chores?’’ Eros countered.

Tera sighed ‘’point made’’.

 ''Captain,how about Tera as well? An open desert without our most capable sniper would be a waste’’.

Captain seemed to take notice of Tera at that point. The captain’s expression was worth the humiliation of being pushed forward like a child. He thought it for a moment and with a nod Tera was aboard the scouting group, a quick eye contact seemed to take place for a second between the captain and Eros, Tera’s hawk

eyes did not miss that, could it have been the captain’s unreceptive demeanor towards him? Tera and the captain always had their differences Tera was skeptical of captain's decisions and leadership in many cases on the countless missions they were together, he was letting his irritation to be show  despite his usually cold, ’military’ expression.

  But Tera was past those shenanigans that drew the attention of the higher ups; he decided he will serve the rest few of his time as timidly as possible; Ferow took a side glance at him, Reremos and Ferow- his brothers in a sense, he had not let even them know, putting on a happy face. But Tera was tired, he no longer wished to serve, he spited the army, and slowly but surely it was chipping away at him, he wanted to get away, would he had been happier following a different career? He was scared to find out, he accomplished nothing more than being dishonest, disregarding of commands and undisciplined, he should have always knew that military life is not for him, but it was too late, fighting was all he knew, 7 years ago they vetted him; a vain little brat, thinking he could earn glory. His father and mother always pushed him away from that path, the path of military servitude; they themselves were part of it for decades, so when they betrayed him with their death he had only one choice.  He had decided that this would be his last mission outside earth. He had already put in a transfer request, would it become accepted he would stand behind a desk pushing the paperwork, and yet nothing was feeling fulfilling to him, it was like he was giving up. He quickly shoved those thoughts away by shaking his head, after all it was pointless to think about this now, and he would have the ride back home to reconsider. He gathered his items and went ahead to join the search party.

    The squad was moving towards their goal through the vast deserts of Nevul, Tera’s worries were melting away, the draught sight of endless sand valleys relaxed Tera to a point of drowsiness , though the rest of the squad was getting tired as well, two hours was a long time to be a walking on sand and this heat, but they were soldiers , their training was  much more painful than that, reminiscing about old times in training can actually be helpful in a way, how much sweat and blood can you spill, that was the real question of their

training program , bearing the thirst and hunger followed.  Joining the elite force offers nothing but pain for the applicant, no weakness can be tolerated. Tera sighed returning to the present where he observed a worm-like creature crawl in and out of the sand; it was unexpected though quite possible for many small resilient organisms to survive on this inhospitable environment. Nevul was a dangerous planet for living organisms. The levels of radiation as well as the air permeated by the constant gasses emitted by the volcanic and seismic activity of the planet made it nearly impossible to survive without the right equipment.  None of the earthen soldiers wanted to be here. The fact was Nevul represented a sin of humanity. It was their actions that lead to the planet turning that deadly. As well as nearly extinguish the planet’s inhabitants. Maybe returning here would prove deadly considering the nevulers were not all that glad to welcome them in their rumbled planet. Even though the higher ups seem to underestimate their threat.

’’they are following us’’ Relon noticed as he took a glance behind his shoulder Tera noticed the small black suited group around their own umbrer mechanism to protect them from the strong suns shinning both from the east and west, they would have hardly needed it since their bodies were used to this kind of heat but after the destruction of their atmosphere the sun could be deadly even to them - the human suits offered enough protection from the radiation, it was unsettling. That was not the beat up grouping of people their officers spoken about. Nevulers were doing fine for themselves on such a place.

‘’look at that and we don’t even have our own for the main squad, no, they want us to melt to death on this heat’’ Ferrow said whining.

The yellowish sky started turning into orange as one of the suns was setting, the day was long in this planet at least 40 hours if their reports were as accurate as it should be considering the time that was put into scouting this planet before the mission started. They were moving for 5 hours, the troop was exhausted and the space suits made their feet even heavier. The team settled down around and set a perimeter. It was night at last on this planet of eternal day. Tera sat in the hard ground, around with the rest of the squad. He was one of the last ones to join them after finishing his tasks for the night, they were telling stories about their older days of service.  He settled next to them putting his pack near his head and lied down. He let their voices sooth him, he was falling into a slumber, slowly.

He woke up to the voice of Lakar, he was narrating a story about the ancient civilization of Uktaran, he sat up from his long nap and listened with intend, he always enjoyed stories of them when he was a boy. ‘’it is said that they were behind Atlantis, all those years we didn’t know which civilization was responsible for building Atlantis, it turns out it was the most ancient of them all’’ ,

‘’what are you talking about Lakar this is just a rumor’’,

‘’damn it don’t ruin it for the guys Turio’’ Turio was the one of the few soldiers who continued his studies after high school that made him enough to rely upon when people needed to evaluate a piece of new information that reached the squad, most of the times he was right as well.

‘’anyway’’ lakar continued ‘’we are really close to their planet right now, could the Uktarians have been here as well?’’

Turio sighed ‘’ you love conspiracies don’t you Lakar?’’,

‘’yea as much as you like dating kids’’, Turio’s face turned red on that remark.

‘’Hey she was 19’’ the squad laughed for that; everyone took Turio too seriously most of the times. The teasing went on for a while until Tera decided to cut in ‘’what do you think they were like? Their understanding of the universe was beyond are comprehension, and yet they destroyed themselves’’. Many heads turned towards him.

‘’Hey now Tera don’t start’’ Reremos said with a sardonic smile. The others turned back to mocking Turio.

‘’what? I was just curious, what could lead them to annihilate each other, they must have been leading a peaceful life for ages, and do you think that would happen to us again?’’

‘’That’s why you always look depressed when we go on missions, thoughts like that are pointless Tera, do you forget what we do for a living? Each day at a time’’

‘’Each day at a time’’ Tera answered back, reciting the message. A buzzing noise signaling the end of their break cut the conversation short and everyone started packing to move forward once again.

   Dario woke up to the sound of auto-cars passing by his window, his hovering bed moved automatically next to his closet, he stretched a bit, got up and went through his daily morning routine, he felt groggy from the meeting he attended last night, while politics were fun, when it came to details it could become extremely tiring. He took a moment to consider his attire options, today was an important meeting with the zeta ambassadors, they cared little for the dress code, but his terrestrial companions would find it uncomfortable if he attended the meeting with jogging suit. His gray suit was the obvious choice. He picked it up and threw it at his hover-bed.

   He looked outside his small oval window, the sky was clear today, not that it mattered, the chance to admire it would be greatly diminished on such a day.  He looked down from his 55th floor apartment, as many auto cars were stopped around two posts set 2 meters from each other, there was much cluster around, even though rush hour had no meaning anymore after the creation of the hover-car, still an interesting incident usually drew a lot of attention, so a cluster of cars blocking some of the main gravity power lines was unavoidable. It seemed like an illegal auto car was caught on the Graviter- that was the name that Dario gave to his invention. The police cars were in time before the criminals left their hover- car behind and fled through the gravity elevators. Of course his invention left no such chance, since it locked all the mechanical parts of the car completely, but still their inevitable demise did not stop them from trying to get out in a desperate attempt to flee. Dario’s thoughts went back to his earlier days as he was watching the police force slowly take custody of the helpless crew of criminals. Dario was considered successful on the business world and on the science world, but that meant little to him.

  After years of studying and many experiments, he managed to create a device that made him rich, but that was hardly his purpose when he begun this journey, he wanted to make a change in the world, a big change, in the end he only managed that much, so he gave up on his career on physics and went on to pursue

politics. Now on his 35th year he started having doubts on his decision making, whilst his dream was hitting a brick wall, called political scene. His connections bought him a seat on the government on sector 3 as a vice-president of bisector 3-1. But that was not his ambition being a vice-president on a bisector could not get him this far, he knew there were circles within circles and he wished to be part of it. He did not know though how he can progress further, no one trusted each other, and everyone followed their own selfish desires.

   Dario wasted no more time as he picked up his business briefcase, and moved to the exit of his apartment. He pulled out his keycard; the machine took a second to recognize the handprint on it and the barcode, he stepped through before the sliding door even opened fully. In the end of the corridor his guards were waiting to escort him to the vehicle, even a lowly position like his had its own risks, like irritating the wrong sort of people. His vehicle, a small but quick auto-car was parked just outside his building, waiting to take off. Its passenger seat was already taken, ‘’well, well, who would expect it, attending two meetings within 12 hours, that doesn’t sound like you at all Dario’’.

 ‘’well you have to keep up, the world keeps spinning and changes, no time for sleep’’, Kesen looked appreciatively at him.

 ‘’you look tired’’,

 ‘’And I absolutely am, yesterday’s meeting almost got me to blow my brains out’’.

‘’Must feelgood’’ Kessen said suddenly.

‘’What areyou talking about? ‘’ Dario said feeling a bit worried.

‘’About themachine, I watched it do its thing once again while I was waiting for you’’

‘’Ah yes, of course’’ Dario answered back relieved.

 The car started moving and Dario settled in, even with their speed they won’t reach the summit building for an hour at least. His co-passenger Kessen was pleasant company, but when going to a meeting you wish to talk about it and that was the constriction with having Kessen in the same car as you, as he was a Public Communicator, they reported back to the public everything that might have been missed in a secluded area among politicians. Also he was there to block any communication between various political parties, before the public meetings that took place network wide, so nothing was to be missed. Every politician had one in his transportation when heading to work. Yes secrecy was no longer part of the political scene, it was near impossible to cheat your way into a position, you had to rely on your wit. Kessen took his mug from his bag and pour some black tea into it, the steam escaped in the small space, ‘’would you like some?’’. Dario was not one to turn some more caffeine down, and he extended his own mug beneath the small kettle.

 ‘’Always practical, or did you finally turn it

into your office?’’.

Kessen

smiled ‘’what are you talking about? This car is much bigger than my office’’.

 Dario even though he appreciated Kessen he knew any friendship or trust that would develop with him, would only be a front; he was convinced that every co-worker had the same relationship with their assigned public communicator. They were nearing the public hearing building, a huge building made of 120 floors decorated with sigils of various planetary organizations, all belonging to the federation of light or to the council of twelve. The sigil of the ‘greys’ as people called them, stood out to Dario since they were the group they were meeting today, the crystal skull sigil. The auto-car was slowly getting out of traffic, blue and red cars raced by as they were leaving the gravity road behind them.  The hover wheels almost touched gravity platform of the building as it was landing upon it. The platform turned and spun for a moment, allowing access to the 20th floor. His driver was there within a moment’s notice to open the door for Dario and Kessen, who walked brazenly to the entrance and within the well-lighted elevator.

  Few moments later Dario was walking on towards the main hall on floor 97, where many groups of people that was deep in conversations all around. Elegance was the word of the day, even the Serius group was on top the dress code. Dario felt that his choice was correct after all. The room was decorated with the latest, mirrors from Pleidians, spreading colors all around with their unique science behind it; Dario never understood how it was possible. He noticed Leren before anyone else did, as he moved to the center of the hall, dipped his hand in his suit pocket and took out a small device, which he dropped to the ground like a seed, the room exploded with light as a person’s outline started forming on top of it. The small device called project 250 was created for the sole purpose of having a 3d sighting of a whole room, and so not an ounce of a movement would be missed. it can project a single person or an entire room and in this case it connected President Seren of sector 3 with the entire hall. The conversations ceased as they waited for the president to begin his speech.  The shape of President slowly formed.  Seren looked around and tightened his tie, ‘’gentlemen I welcome you for this special event celebrating 100 years on our venture into space and establishing communication with all the planetary systems, and engaging in diplomatic and cultural connection. We now stand among with all the new and ancient Nations of the cosmos. The earth has finally ascended, they have awaited and we answered with our presence. Fool yourselves not, this is not the end of the evolution of the human kind, just the beginning.’’

  He did a slight nod before cutting of the communication with the room, even though his speech was short, Dario felt inspired to it, the president believed in the human race, he on the other hand did not felt so, and ideology might have changed but what about humans themselves. Someone would say this was but the first step, like the moon landing was. He didn’t waste any more time and headed to the conference room along with the rest of the hall.

      Dario’s steps echoed through the hall, he was walking behind his co-workers, his mind wandered on the meeting, his arguments today will affect his career he was certain of that. The meetings were broadcasted worldwide and even on Mars were his family was currently stationed, the meeting’s agenda was about the greys but no one expected him to be up to date, they would not bother with a vice president of a bi-sector. But he understood the greys very well so, the beings that haunted humanity for the last centuries, today they would converse as equals, something that their predecessors couldn’t claim it was possible. The president was only half right in his speech, they were not standing among them yet, but they will earn it. He would earn it.