Everglow: Friend From Far Away

34 - Zaphermonarian

"Sir! We've been able to dig some more information out about the asset. Including a location of origin," The agent exclaimed, waving around some papers inside the office.

Johannes immediately perked up at the sound of more information.

"Alright. What do you have for me?"

"We've been running our scanners for days now. A few hours ago we finally managed to pick something from the dartboard. A planet approximately fifteen million light years away. Ngc-7274-117. Or it's more commonly known name, Diamar."

"Never heard of it."

"Yea, not many people have. But it's been on our radar for quite some time now. Has a very similar atmosphere to Earth, and although cold has shown all the necessary signs of being inhabitable. All evidence points to the everglow originating on the surface of that planet. That means the asset is most likely from that location. Sir, we just discovered an alien homeworld."

"Each day we grow closer to ensuring humanity's expansion into the universe. This is a huge milestone in that goal. What about the asset?" Johannes queried.

"Well, we believe it's from a race of intelligent beings known as 'Zaphermonarians'. No contact has ever been recorded, but we have received signals from that area of space from a race of beings that call themselves that."

"Zaphermonarians? And you're certain that this creature is of the same race?"

"Not one hundred percent, no. But we have a pretty strong hunch that they are."

Johannes turned around in his chair and faced out the window, twiddling his pen in his fingers.

"Hunches don't lead to anything worth our time. Evidence and facts do. I don't want you running around with nothing to chase," he scoffed.

"I understand sir, but this is new territory we're working with. This is quite literally a world first. We don't exactly have a lot of evidence to go off of," the agent stated. He straightened his glasses and looked down at the file in his hands. Opening it, he shifted through a stack of papers before finding the one he was looking for.

"As for the creature. Now that we know the whereabouts of its origin, we can start to piece together how their race functions. We only have very limited data available at the moment, but once we secure the asset we can begin more definitive research."

"What do you have so far?"

"As I stated before, Diamar has an atmosphere similar to Earth's. Scans of the planet's ion and stratosphere indicate a higher than normal presence of nitrate which may make it uninhabitable for humans, but it seems this creature is able to adapt to the surface of whatever planet it inhabits, so long as the atmosphere is relatively similar to the planet it came from. That could potentially explain why it's able to survive on our planet."

"What about the surface of the planet?"

"Well we don't know much. But from what we can decipher, it's a very similar climate to Antarctica. It's covered in ice and snow and doesn't appear to house much variety in terrain or biomes. These creatures seem adept at surviving in the cold, which is confusing considering when we saw the creature on that video, it was dressed up in a long shirt and even a cloak."

"Some people like to make themselves look like complete idiots. You're not judging it by it's appearance are you?" Johannes quipped, letting a small chuckle out.

"Not by it's clothing at least. It's physical appearance however is a different story. We still don't have a lot of information or even images of the asset, but with the knowledge of the creature's home planet, we can start to piece together why it looks the way it does. The two horns, or in this case, the one and a half horns on top appear to be expressive. They seem to be rigid structures, but able to flex and bend like an arm. Think of how a cat can raise and lower it's ears if it's feeling threatened. The tail is very interesting. There aren't many things we can compare it to here on earth, however I think the closest animal we can find would be this."

The agent blew up an image on his tablet and spun it around to show Johannes. It was of a dinosaur that looked almost like a huge armadillo.

"Ankylosaurus. The reason I state that is because unlike most creatures, the tail here is used for utility and defense. We think the same is true of the Zaphermonarian people. The ankylosaurus used it's club-like tail to ward off any predators. We think the Zaphermonarians may use the large spikes on their tails as a means of defense. It could also be possible that they are used for breaking apart ice and other materials, considering how thick they are compared to the rest of the body. However, this being a female specimen, we can't be one hundred percent certain of this. It's possible they're just there for show, but nature doesn't often add on extra things that have the potential to get in the way for no reason."

Johannes nodded while the agent's words rang through him. This creature sounded dangerous.

"So forceful acquisition is out of the question then," he stated, scratching his neck.

"Unfortunately. Speaking of acquisition, any word back from our friend yet?"

"Unfortunately not yet. But I wouldn't count on them taking too long. We can be. . . very persuasive. . . when we need to be."

---\/---

"So. . . what are we going to do?" Ko queried, still wrapped in the towel that Fischer had given her after their close brush with the river.

He sat in the front seat of the car, the phone clutched in his hands.

"We're going to make them play by our rules. If we don't, either you or Mira are dead. And I'm not willing to take that risk."

Ko frowned slightly, "That's not really answering the question though."

"Right, yea. What I think we should do. Lure them out into the middle of the forest, but make sure that there's no more than two agents. If there are more, this whole thing will fall apart."

"Why?"

"Because you're going to be the one taking them down."