The Incident at Tau Ceti

By Padre8

Part II

He remembered a ball… and a club… and an intense pain in his hand… and a blue-green scaly flash…

“Ah, I see you’re waking up, JP. I hope you aren’t too angry at me.”

Everything snapped into focus. JP-16-1 flexed his right hand and could tell it was completely artificial now. “No, I’m not angry,” he answered. “I should have known better than to play a game of speederball with a Grendarl.” He paused. “Besides, now I can use my sports injury to impress women.”

Saisho laughed, a sound that always amused JP-16-1. “It is good to see that you still have a sense of humor.”

The doctor came into the room to check on JP. In the Cynoid collective, doctors were experts in both biological sciences and engineering. They had to be, as the Cynoids themselves were a cybernetic race, and a mechanical ailment had to be treated with the same vigor as a biological one. The doctor adjusted the new hand until JP-16-1 could not tell that he had his hand replaced. After that, he filled out paperwork for a half-hour and was released from the hospital. The unlikely pair started walking down the crowded street toward JP’s apartment.

JP-16-1 was a relatively new recruit into the Central Business Administration. In a society based on business and industry, JP had found that he was terrible at both. His teachers had scratched their collective craniums throughout his schooling in order to find him a career. Finally, he joined the CBA. Cynoid businesses were not regulated very much by the government, so the CBA wasn’t charged with policing industry, as the name may suggest, but rather with intelligence operations and security. JP was part of the security branch of the CBA.

His first assignment had been a rather unique one. He was placed on an intelligence-sharing project with the Grendarl. The Cynoids and Grendarl had kept an uneasy alliance after the last Cyber War. Both had fought against the humans, and the terran maxim “An enemy of an enemy is a friend” had proven true yet again. The two powers had continued their relatively friendly status, and had actually grown closer after the peace treaty was signed. The military might of the Grendarl Hegemony needed the strong backing of the Cynoid industrial machine, and the Cynoids needed the protection of the Grendarl.

JP-16-1 had been assigned to work with Saisho, the Grendarl agent-in-charge on Tau Ceti. Saisho wasn’t his real name, of course. The Grendarl phonetics were unpronounceable by most people – including JP. When the gigantic lizard had rattled off the series of guttural clicks and hisses that was his name, JP had blinked and asked if there was something easier to say that he could call his new partner. “Saisho” was the answer. JP wasn’t sure what it meant, or where it came from, but it was a lot easier to say. Despite some initial discomfort, the two had become close friends.

“Perhaps next time we should play a game of Terran Chess,” suggested JP-16-1, with an evil grin.

“Bah,” hissed Saisho. “You will beat me easily at that, as you always do. We need to find something that combines the mental and the physical in order to be a challenge for each other.”

“True, true” answered JP, his gaze wandering.

Saisho followed his friend’s gaze. He knew what JP was looking at. “I do not understand how you can tell the difference between the male and female sexes of your species, my friend. You all look the same to me, in those exosuits.”

JP laughed. “It’s all in the way one carries one’s self, Saisho. And that was one nice piece of titanium walking by.”

“We need to find you a female, JP,” said Saisho. “Then you can settle down and have hatchlings of your own.” Saisho had several dozen grown children already.

The two had a good laugh together, and continued walking down the street, little knowing the evil that was descending upon the planet.

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