Arbiter VI stood alone in the vast expanse of Xenon II's planetary surface. A small research facility managed by professor Christian Mengele, it's sole operative, Tasked with testing theories and ultimately finding a way to clone or replicate life to inhabit Xenon II's desolate plains. Aside from the supply craft's quarterly visits to Arbiter VI Christian was left alone to his experiments, the only other lifeforms he came into contact with. Small miniscule parasites kept in glass containers as he struggled to sustain and support their lives. The complex that he lived and worked in had four rooms connected by narrow corridors. One was his quarters, another two were his laboratories, the last his storage facility. The harsh surface of Xenon II was the frequent victim of storms which discouraged Christian from exploring far from the compound.

Christian marked the two hundredth and ninety ninth notch on the now covered wall of his living quarters as he let go a sigh. His research had shown no progress in the ten months he had been there and the year was creeping toward an end and if his studies did not soon yield progress then the Arbiter VI project would be shut down. After finishing his daily routine which included an array of exercises and other typical tasks Christian left his quarters and entered his laboratory. His test subject's vitals were stable but low and he knew if they could barely survive in this state of assisted living that they would never be able to exist on the harsh surfaces of Xenon II. Christian began the tedious task of coding in data to his computer as the dim lights of the lab illuminated the room with a neon blue glow.

The silence of space was always awed Lyca T'onis, yet she knew that there was life out there making noise. She just had to find it. The hum of the eezo drive core was comforting, though most people would think it as annoying. But to Lyca it was like music, it ment that she traveling, free from the elders and free to discover life. She had been on many planets some with full life forms that were close to her kind in thinking and technology but were still new to flight let alone space flight. Other worlds she had visited were ones that the only life was the bacteria and small protien organisms. She wasn't sure which was her favourite to study, they both awed her, though she had to usually stay out of the full life forms since they didn't know about space travel and other life beyond their own planet. The elders of her kind hated that she went alone and what they hated more was the discoveries that she made. It ment that they had to back her and fund her for her explorations, she knew they hated having one so young as her flying about with no team, but she liked to work alone.
Lyca did a final check on the systems before going to the back of her small ship. It was made of three small parts, the helm, the cabin, and the storage/engine room. The helm and the cabin was were she spent most of her days, the only time she went to the storage/engine room was for checking on her cargo and the engine. As she was replicating food, lights and a high pich warning sound went off. "Goddess!" She breathed as she hushed to the helm and climbed into the captians seat. She was in an asteroid storm, one of the freaks of nature that she barely saw on her voyages. The deflecter shields were keeping most of the debris away but the bigger ones were hitting her ship, the ship was a research vessel not fighter. "Come on baby make it for me. We're almost out." She said under breath as she pulled her ship into some insane maneuvers that put some stress on the ship. Finally she was out of the field, she sat back and closed her eyes and smiled. "To close." She said, she never wanted to go though that again. Suddenly the ship rocked to one side and the high pitch warning sound seemed to take a greater sense of ergency. Lyca looked down at her board and quickly started pressing buttons that would contain the breach, but the damage was done. She knew that she couldn't keep flying like this as her ship would fall apart. She searched her galaxy map for a "safe" place to land, the closest planet was a nearly baron planet. A ping sound told her that her VI program found some form of life on the planet, she didn't have time to analyze the data. SHe had to land her ship.
The ship entered the atmosphere in a nearly unsafe speed, "COME ON!" She yelled as she tried to slow the dissent of her craft. The ship hit the ground with a nearly jarring impact. Once the ship slowed to a stop Lyca looked around at her boards and flipped a few switches that turned off the eezo drive core but kept life support on. She noticed then that her VI program analyzed the data and showed her that the life form had a bunker of some sort not three miles away. The information baffelled her, there wasn't any space fairing life out here. So who were these creatures and why hasn't the council known of these creatures. She bit her lip before getting out of the captains seat, once she took note of the damage and her own injuries, she went back up to the helm. "Here goes nothing." She whispered as she pushed a button that would send out a genaric distress signal. She hoped whatever life form was at the bunker was a kind like form.

The constant drone of the laboratory had lulled the still hard at work Christian into some sort of hypnotic work frenzy as he frantically entered calculations at great speed, testing and counter testing theories but every break through was succeeded soon after by a dead end and his enthusiasm was slowly dying. The neon glow of the blue laboratory lights and the soft murmur of the research units did not prepare him for the shrill warning signal that echoed through the small facility's hallways. This smashed his concentration and he immediately followed procedure, equipping himself with an emergency pack from the storage facility and hurriedly getting into a full body atmospheric protection suit in case the compound's was failing. After doing this he ran to his living quarters and scanned the source of the signal. He muttered to himself as he checked over the data. "Good, the life support systems are running fine." He continued to type "The atmosphere is also fine, no violent storms." He looked over the data scanning it as fast as he could "Then what is the problem?" He asked rhetorically as his eyes became fixed on a line of code. His eyes darkened "A distress signal." He read out "from section 7, but no ship are scheduled to be here until a week from now." He walked out into the corridors and pushed in a code to open the complex door as well as the buggy enclosure "Even if it is a glitch, I should check it out." He thought to himself before quickly making a log detailing what he had just learned and what he now planned to do.

Christian was met relatively "calm" storms for Xenon II but this didn't stop bracing himself as he walked from the compound towards the now exposed buggy enclosure. He quickly got on and started the engine, driving fast towards the location of the distress signal. His eyes could barely pierce the thick wastelands sand like storms but he remained on the suggested route planned by his tracking device and within an hour he had reached the ship's crash site. He rubbed sand and dirt from the front of his helmet allowing him to see more clearly the foreign ship in front of him, it stood virtually not as a wreckage but as a virtually undamaged ship. It was not what he was expecting. His heart was pounding like a heavy drum, nothing he had ever read documented a ship like this. He approached with cation and excitement, the steps he took followed the rhythm of his heart as he grew closer to what he thought may be a possible entrance to the craft. He began attempting to find a way onto the craft by scanning several parts of the ship with his scanner. The pulsing sounds of the scanner were heard inside the craft as a quite high pitched ringing sound.

"Hello, is there anyone aboard this vessel?" Christian yelled attempting to be heard over the violent storms. "If you're wounded I may be able to assist, I am a a doctor." He continued. He waited for the signs of life as he continued to scan the craft for an entrance.

Lyca was checking and re-checking her data and making sure that the eezo core was still in good condition. She didn't want any over emissions from the drive core, since shortly after the crash it began to flux. She must of crashed harder then she thought, she rushed to the helm again when her VI program pinged again. She turned on her exterior camaras and looked at the screans seeing nothing at first. She thought that the VI program much of been damage, which was upsetting as she depended on that program. It had helped her with decoding ancient technologies of creatures long dead, plus it helped find life and had saved her's countless times. SHe bit her lip and was about to head back to the drive core when she saw movement on one of the screans. She watched as the creature in a strange suit came towards her craft, it moved with a sense of ergency. No doubt that this creature has never been contacted by another race. She watched as the creature scanned her ship, she didn't move. She wasn't use to full contact with other species unless they were ones that the council regularly traded or talked about other boring things. This creature she was looking at on the screan was an unknown, now she was usually curious and excited to find new life but she had no means of escape if things went wrong.

She cocked her head to the side when she heard the creature call out, she wasn't sure what it said but it didn't sound too threatening and it didn't look like the creature carried a weapon. She bit her lip again but began to nod her head before turning and walking to the exist bay, she put on her grey "space" suit that nearly hugged her curves. "You can do this Ly." She said to herself as she punched a few buttons that opened the exist bay's large heavy door. She walked out and turned to her left now facing the creature. Her tail swished behind her in her nervousness, "Hello?" She said in her language, she knew that this creature didn't know her language but she spoke regardless. She walked slowly towards the creature and raised her hands in a non-threatening way, she didn't want to seem threatening as that would start this out on a bad foot. She limped and little as she walked a little closer to the creature, she hit her knee and hip on the left side during the crash. She didn't realize she was hurt until the adrenaline wore off, now she was hurting. She suddenly realized that showing she was hurt was most likely a bad thing since if this creature was of a violent nature it would exploit her weakened state. She stopped a few feet away and cocked her head to the side. The creature stood on two legs and had "normal" length arms, and was tall. Where ever it came from the the gravity was simular to her home planets if not a little lighter. Though what suprised her was that it had this creature had five fingers, not four or three like what she was use to seeing. She wish she could sniff the creature since she could tell what gender it was, roughtly anyway. She suddenly wondering if it had and abilities like she had, and if it did she had to guard herself of a mental attack.

"I am Lyca T'Onis." She said in her language while placing her hand on her chest. "Lyca T'Onis." She said again tapping her chest. "You?" She asked pointing at the creature and cocking her head to the side, hoping that it would catch what she was saying.

Christian stood mesmerized as the ship's bay doors opened exposing Lyca, an alien being to him. He had dreamed of this moment since he was a child, an encounter with an alien life form. Every facet of his specie's culture had exemplified the intrigue of alien life and he had embraced this intrigue and had almost indirectly put himself in positions where he would run the chance of making contact with alternate species to himself. This is what had brought him to the isolated Arbiter VI compound in a way as much more lucrative and comfortable opportunities were available closer to home but he relished the opportunity to work in distant and uncharted space with such hopes of meeting such a being as Lyca T'Onis. When the she spoke to him his stance faltered slightly as if seeing her and hearing her attempt communication with himself all in such a short period of time overwhelmed his intrigue and excitement but he quickly composed himself and raised his hands in a non threatening way as way his race's custom.

Although he could not understand her he chanced a guess that she may be as this formality was also a common practice when greeting another in his own culture "My name is Christian Mengele" He began in a polite and clear manner "I am a biologist, a scientist." he continued "I am unarmed and mean you no harm." He finished as he suddenly realised that she was wounded, he lowered his hands slightly feeling foolish for letting his excitement distract him from the fact that this life form was a crash victim. He kept one hand in the air holding the scanner and pointed with his left hand towards her apparent wounds. "You're wounded, I can help you if you would let me." He tried to say these words in the most comforting way he could. He then gestured towards his vehicle, the terrain buggy that was parked a few metres away. "I have transportation and I can take you to shelter from this storm. I also have advanced medical supplies there." He said these words knowing that the chance of her understanding his language was almost impossible but he gestured as he spoke in hope that she may understand his message.

He looked the creature up and down mesmerized by her appearance and it suddenly dawned on him that he was alone on this planet with out any advanced weapons. His scanner could fire a weak stunning ray meant for temporarily paralysing his test subject if need be but the affects on humans would likely not cause much of an affect unless he modified it and he had no idea if it would be able to stop this creature if she was indeed hostile. He refused to let doubt or paranoia take him and would not be the reason for any hostilities with this race even if it meant risking his life. He approached her slowly his hands still raised and attempted to help her as she was limping.

Lyca smiled slightly at how much the creature was talking, The must need alot of words to say hello and I am a friend. She thought since the way he moved a little stiff but non-threatening. It was like how she was moving, almost like they didn't want to scare each other away. She watched as the creature held up some sort of device, what she guessed to be some sort of scanner and as far as she could tell it wasn't hurting her. She looked at the almost primitive buggy type of machine, it looked really odd to her but it was made for the creature and not for her, so she guess it was alright. Lyca jumped slightly when the creature reached for her but her damn leg jarred and she stumbled into the creature. Her heart was racing as grabbed the creature and held for a moment as shetried to right herself. "Sorry, sorry." She said as stood on her own again, if her helmet wasn't on the creature would of saw her blush, but she thanked the goddess that she had one on.

She aloud the creature to usher her to the buggy thing, she was greatful for the creatures support as her leg was really beginning to hurt. She suddenly wondered if she dislocated it. She most likely did given to the amount of pain she was in at the given moment, once in the buggy she looked at the creature. "Thank you, Christian Mengele." She said lowly. She knew that all the creature would pick up would be it's name, but that was okay. Lyca had a feeling that none of her kind would be coming too soon since she was in an unknown quadrent of space to her species. That and no one wonder for a while where she went, since she was known not to check in for weeks. It make the council mad, but they still backed her missions. So most likely the creatures kind would show up first given that this one lived in a romote area in space. So this ment that they bot had some time to learn each other language, the idea excited her since she was an explorer. She let the creature drive her back to it's base and help her out of the buggy and into decontamination room. Once the air locks locked and laser decontaminater finished its sweep, Lyca slowly took off her helmet and shook her head to let her long black hair fall onto her shoulders. She looked at the creature with black eyes, she wondered if she looked scary to it with her light purple skin and light blue facial markings. Her tail swished nervously as she awaited for its reaction and to see what this creature looked like, plus she wanted to know its gender.

Christian apologised as he caught her in his arms. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to frighten you." He said as he helped her to the buggy, relieving the stress from her leg. He helped her into the passenger seat and fastened her harness which would keep her from falling from the buggy at high speeds or during bumps in the untamed terrain. He looked at her strangely at her when she addressed him by his name, he was impressed that she was able to learn his name so quickly and pick it out of the many words he had hurriedly babbled in an attempt to reassure her. She was either intelligent for her species or her species was intelligent. The ride back was turbulent as they drove through the worsening wasteland storm but they made it back safely and moved inside the compound locking it down after parking the buggy in it's maintenance bay.

They went through the decontamination procedure and he began removing his outdoor full body suit as she removed her own flight suit. The haze of the storm had prevented him from seeing her clearly before and as his eyes came into focus he was greeted by the visage of her form, now without her flight suit on. He seemed fascinated by her form and almost speechless at the sight of the feminine creature in front of him. His eyes ran over her purple skin and facial markings for a moment before he pulled his attention from the grips of his fascination and to urgency of her wounds.

He led her towards the laboratory where he entered the pass code to open the door and aided her movement towards centre table. The table had previously been used for biological experiments so it would be suitable for medical treatment if needed. He helped her onto the table and tried to make her as comfortable as possible. He spoke her through what he was doing out of habit but also in some hope that it might ease any nervousness she had, he then walked over to his computing desk and scanned her, according to the information she had sustained only minor injuries although her anatomy was foreign to him. He did not want to attempt anything too drastic so he opted to give her a dose of morphine for the pain until he was more confident in her physiology. He knew the the quick and almost painless injection may frighten her so he injected it it swiftly to dull her pain without alarming her. "I'm sorry" he said as he injected her "but this will help the pain."

Lyca noticed at how long he looked at her and the fascination that showed in his eyes. Though her own fascination was probably showing on her face, the creature was a male (she knew he was male by his smell.) and looked a hairless nug. Only this creature wasn't as ugly as a nug, she smiled inwardly as she took in the sight of the creature. It was tall and had black hair on its head like she did, It looked similar to some of the other species she had observed while out on her explorations, but this ones knees were facing the other way. Her fascination was torn away when the male began to lead her further into the compound, she limped as fast as her leg would let her. Though walking took most of her attention, she did take time to look at her surroundings. The compound looked like research station, she could tell by the way things were set up and how clean everything was.

Lyca sat on what was most likely a lab table and listened to the male speak, she didn't know what he was saying but she figured that he was telling her what he was going to do like the doctors did on her planet. She laid on the table and watched as he went over to his computer and then watched as something scanned her. She wondered how he was going to fix her since she was sure he wouldn't know her physiology, just like she didn't know his. When he came back over to her he held a needle in his hand, her eyes went a little wide as she never liked needles and she wasn't sure if what he was giving her wouldn't kill her. But she was going to trust him. "Ahh." She said lowly after the quick sting of the needle. As she slowly sat up she grabbed the males arm, she looked at him for a moment before placing a hand on her chest then placing the same hand on his. She hoped that her thanks was known through the jesture.

Lyca didn't bother getting off the table since her leg was still hurting, maybe it was just a muscle thing as she was sure he would know what a dislocated hip looked like. As she looked around she noticed how plain everything looked, he must of been board. Sure she was use to such rooms where she did some of her work but she travelled the stars she was able to leave whenever she wanted. She looked at the male again and raised an eyebrow as she was trying to remember his name. "Christian?" She said as she cocked her head to the side, she wanted to know how to talk in his language since it didn't sound to hard. She looked around the room before looking at her tail and smiled. Pointing to her tail she looked at Christian and shrugged, she hoped he would understand. She wanted to know what he called a tail, though a thought popped into her head. What if nothing on his planet has tails? The thought was a little shocking but she was going to try this anyway. She was too curious for her own good, and once she found a species that was interesting she would try to find everything she could about that species.

Christian felt horribly guilty for injecting her with the pain killer as he was unable to inform her of what he was going to do first but she was an intelligent life form and picked up on what was going on almost instantaneously. He touched her chest and then his in quick succession, he did not know what this meant but her body language would indicate that she was not angry and perhaps grateful. Perhaps that is how they say "thank you" he pondered, he had seen her use this gesture before back at the crash site. He saw her body relax and the uncomfortable look of pain on her face fade as he moved back to his scanner. He had spent eight years studying other creature's physiology and this creature was a humanoid, he knew he may be able to put his skills to good use but he was also apprehensive of hurting her. She was not in any immediate danger from what looked like a dislocated hip although he did want to fix her before the morphine wore off and she would be subjected to pain again. He studied the scans intensely as she began to speak and point at her tail. He hadn't noticed that she had such a feature before and stood up from his desk to approach, he smiled as she shook his head revealing that he had no such feature himself. He excused himself for a moment and return with a pillow and a blanket. He placed the pillow under her head and the blanket over her. The table must have been uncomfortable and the Arbiter VI compound was cold. He went back to look at the scan of his patient and decided that if he did not act she would likely be in a lot of pain and he had no way of finding one of her own kind to aid her. Her anatomy seemed similar enough and he had done this maneuver often on humans, he took a breath and moved to her side.

He tried to talk in a comforting voice as he explained that he was going to try and fix her. He pointed to her hip while he spoke in hopes he would not surprise her when he began to try to help. "I am going to try and reposition the hip joint by applying force to the leg." He said softly "By doing this I hope to avoid surgery" He continued "This is called a closed reduction of the hip replacement, you shouldn't feel much pain due to the morphine I gave you earlier." He smiled but looked slightly nervous and stressed. He placed his hands on her hip and found an adequate position and then looked at her trying to convey that he was about to attempt the repair. Christian then applied a lot of force but was unsuccessful the first time and he relieved the force, he cursed as he did worried that he may have hurt her but my making this mistake he quickly found the correct place he should have applied pressure. He positioned his hands on her again gently and then applied a large amount of force and within a moment a click was heard indicating that the hip had dislocation had been repaired.

Christian let out a relieved sigh as he slumped back in his chair. He wanted to move her to somewhere more comfortable and perhaps offer her something to eat but first he should let her rest. Moments later he became curious of her name, she had been clever enough to decipher his among all the words unknown to her that he was babbling but he had not been able to work hers out. He moved his chair closer and pointed to himself. "Christian" He said as he pointed to himself and then he pointed to her. He repeated again as to make sure he was making himself clear "Christian" he said once more and then gestured to himself in hopes that she would understand what he was trying to do.

Lyca huffed as the male didn't understand her, she wanted to learn, to know his culture. She was horribly curious and wanted to know, she tapped her cheek with one of her fingers while she was thinking. Some how this language barrier needed to be crossed, but it seemed that they had to be content with reading voice pitches and bady language. She knew that he didn't have a tail, so she now assumed that nothing on his planet had a tail. It was odd to think that there was life forms that had no tails, sure she seen sapien life with no tails before but there were things on those planets that had tails. She watched as the male left the room for a moment and then come back but with some things in his hands. She lifted her head as he placed a pillow under her head, she was rather suprised that this creature would think of giving her comfort. Again she was greatful, she was wondering how she was going to pay back the male.

She watched as he went back to his scanner thing, he looked like he was a little stressed. She bit her lip as she listened to him speak as he came back and pointed at her hip, so her hip was dislocated. She assumed then that he was going to pop it back in, she knew this was going to hurt. She had dislocations before and they always hurt like a bitch, but this was a hip dislocation and it would hurt worse then all of her other dislocations. She grabbed the sides of table and braced herself, she nodded slightly at him as he laid his hands on her hip. Lyca hissed at his first attempt as pain shot up into her spine, though she noticed it wasn't to bad, whatever he gave her was working. Rebracing herself, she nodded again and gave a small cry of pain as the male popped her hip back into its socket. She huffed as the pain slowly went away, and once the pain was gone she slowly sat up on the table. Again she was watching the male as he came closer and began pointing at himself and saying his name then pointing at her then repeating.

Lyca nearly laughed, she had given her name to him already but he probably didn't pick it up. "Lyca." She said as she pointed at herself. "Christian." She said while pointing at the male. Was he the smartest of his species? He must of been as they wouldn't of sent someone all the way out here and then give him a lab with most likely their state of the art technology. Lifting an eyebrow she began to pointing to individual parts on her face. "Eye's, nose, mouth, ears." She pointed to each one then reached out and gently touched the same parts that were on his face. "Eye's, nose, mouth, ears." She said in her language and hoped that he would catch on and repeat what she was saying only in his language. She figure they would start with some basic's and if she heard different tones and sounds she could 'decode' his language. As far as she could tell there was some similarities in his language as two other species that she had studied. Maybe she could figure it out, she had to.

He smiled and nodded as she addressed him by his name and gave him her own name again. He repeated her name "Lyca". She was obviously a very curious and studious individual and would rather learn than rest. He decided to indulge her, partially because of his own curiosity of her but also to take her mind off of her pain. He watched and repeated what she said as she gestured to the various features of her face. He did so with some difficulty, he obviously did not have the same skill that she possessed for learning new languages but he did his best. He then motioned over his own eyes, nose, mouth and ears as he said allowed their names in his own language. Once she had repeated back to him the words he had previously stated he went about the room enthusiastically pointing to various common items and saying their names as they exchanged the nouns to each other like a couple of excited school children. He went quickly from one item to the next and when he ran out of items he excused himself temporarily to fetch a box full of things from his living quarters and after that another box from the supply room. By the time he had finished his laboratory was a mess of a random assortment of items and he slumped into the chair exhausted. He wasn't able to retain as much of the information as her but he had learned some words. Lyca on the other hand seemed to have perfect memory for these sorts of learnings and had already learned a great deal. He didn't know which, but it was either her or her species that possessed this innate bi-lingual ability.

He wanted to know more but it had grown late and he needed to stay in his routine, he began to tidy the room. He finished tidying the room and returned with a tray of food, it didn't look appetising or fresh. It looked like a mixture of processed protein and vegetables. He apologised for the quality of the food but assured her that it was nutritious "Or so they tell me." He laughed. Once they had finished eating he tried to convey that he thought it would be best for her to stay where she was to let her hip heal. He tried to make her as comfortable before dimming the lighting. "If you need me..." He began to say but then realised it would be better to motion rather than say for this particular piece of information. He pointed to himself and said his own name "Christian" then pointed down the narrow hallway outside of the lab to the door at the end. He repeated this and said "If you need any help in the night I will be there." He said a little hopelessly. He really wanted to be able to communicate more fluently with Lyca.

He then gave her a tired smile and then left to go to his quarters. He thought that he would have to document his time with Lyca, his race had dreamt and often depicted the first encounters with an intelligent alien life form. There had been rumours before but nothing concrete, his company, HEX had strict procedures concerning alien life forms but this usually applied to the alien parasites and bacteria which he studied. He pondered these thoughts as he walked back to his quarters. He entered his quarters and slumped down on the small bed falling asleep almost instantly.

Lyca watched as Christian left the room, he looked tired and gestured if she needed him, he would be down the hall. But she wasn't tired yet, sure it was a busy day but she was still vary curious and wanted to figure out how to comunicate with the male. She eyed the computer for a while wondering if she could figure out his language from it, she didn't move for a while though. As soon as she was sure that her leg was okay she got up and slowly walked over to the computer, she looked down the hall to make sure that the male wasn't there. She looked at the computer and tilted her head to the side, trying to remember his code to get into the system. She didn't see what things he pushed but she did see the way his hands moved but that was enough for her.

Sitting down in the chair she slowly typed in the code to get into his computer before pressing the button that looked like the enter button. At first nothing happened and she worried that she did something wrong but the screen suddenly came to life. She looked at the screen trying to see if she could figure out his language, it was then that she clicked on a file that was coded. But she recognized the numbers and symbols, it was language of the gray ones. A species long dead, but it was said that they had given some of their knowledge to young races in the far reaches of the galaxy. Lyca's heart began to race as Christian's langauge was making sense to her, every word and sound was becoming clear the more the file decoded it self.

Lyca in her excitement quickly got up and went to find Christian, she didn't really care that he may be asleep, though it had been many hours since he had gone to bed. She wanted to share what she learned, though the small thought that he might be upset that she snooped. BUt she didn't dwell on that thought for long, she quickly went down the hall before coming to Christian's door. "Christian? Christian, I learned yer langauge." She said while tapping on his door, though she had a heavey russian like accent.