LF Friends, Will Travel

Innovation is Impartial - chapter 2

Date: 77 PST

"I've come to tell you, I've got an opportunity I can't say no to. I'm afraid I'm leaving"

The words were said with a sadness, a measure of guilt and apprehension, the universal displeasure of telling someone bad news. Of course, bad news is a relative thing. For Dr. Johnathan Fletcher, this was overall good news. Good news for Terrans, good news for his career, good news for the war effort in general. But news denotes change, and in all change there are people who will win, and people who will lose.

Sadly, in this circumstance, Lena was one of the ones who would be losing from such a change.

"Sad surprise: Why? Are you not enjoying your time on the ship any more, friend Johnathan?"

The Scythen turned a shade of dark grey, the displeasure of this sudden news obvious to anyone who'd spent a lot of time around the alien. Lena, like all of her species, sat upon a floating metal disk, their entire body made up of a 3ft wide mass of colour changing tentacles.

Their name wasn't actually Lena, the Scythen's name was a specific series of colour changing wobbles communicated through the natural bioluminescence of their body, but most people couldn't understand or 'say' that, so they had chosen Lena. The 'voice' they spoke with also wasn't theirs, the floating metallic ring provided them not only with a faster form of locomotion than their 'natural' flopping around, but also allowed for them to communicate with the vast majority of the universe who couldn't change colour at will.

The pair of them stood, or at least what represented standing for both species, in Lena's quarters upon the research vessel, the Terran having previously told the Scythen that they needed to talk about something. That was a phrase that never ended with good tidings.

"No no no, it's nothing like that Lena. I've enjoyed my time both on the research vessel and with you as my friend! I've learnt so much here!"

Teaching the Terran had been the entire point of the research vessel they were on. The simple secret that most of the universe didn't know about the Scythens, was that they didn't need research vessels or collaborations with other species. They had far surpassed the technological level they outwardly claimed to the rest of the universe, and instead took the various scientific vessels around the galaxy on holidays disguised as 'proper research' that a species at their supposed level of development would naturally be doing.

It was also a great way to share technology with allies without dumping reality changing devices onto their laps. It was a very important step for each species to 'discover' how to do things themselves, so they'd also learn about the mistakes and how not to do things. Allowing non-Scythens on board to 'help' was a perfect way to slowly advance these people's scientific knowledge.

That had been Lena's job when they had been assigned to look after the strange Terran. To take this academic who was at the top of his field and ensure they were fed enough information to push forward Terran knowledge at a relatively decent rate. Johnathan had made no less than 14 major breakthroughs during his time on the Scythen research vessel, advances in industry, energy generation and weaponry.

Lena had pretended to be annoyed at each reckless and dangerous advance into the unknown, but in reality they had been planned, the Scythen leaving behind enough clues and breadcrumbs to 'inspire' the intrepid scientist into their next discovery. The ship was never in any danger, as each possible antimatter explosive or room filled with acid had been planned and accounted for, just in case it went wrong.

Well, apart from the time Dr Johnathan Fletcher had set fire to the kitchen trying to make a cheese toasty. That hadn't been planned, and legitimately annoyed Lena and the mess it had caused.