Ancient Astronauts

Meeting of Men, Monsters, and Gods

Alyonna, pushing her very swollen belly before her, walked into the conference room in the Central Administration Building. The first thing to hit her nose was the now familiar Earthy scent of the kobolds. Saldarix sat on a stool as chairs with backings interfered with his tail. Seeing him sitting there, hands folded, calmly discussing matters of state with Hans, Shooby, Ahriman, and Admiral Kepler, still felt bizarre to Alyonna despite this being the third such meeting in the last month.

Hans had mostly healed, and, as promised, the wounded kobolds had been on their feet again in a matter of days. Only fading pits in Saldarix's bony chest plate gave any indication he'd ever been shot.

Alyonna relaxed a little when she noticed that the kobold elder had had one of the tailors fashion a pair of pants for him. She'd had a long conversation with the ancient lizard man about that. She'd empathized with him as best she could but ultimately put her foot down. No exposed hemipenes in public. And the ancient one complied, begrudgingly.

Slowly she sank into the chair next to Hans and shot Saldarix a smile, letting him know he was out of the dog house. Saldarix didn't honor the look with so much as a glance. Hans took her hand.

"We have been disscusssing thiss for a long time," Saldarix was saying, "My people cannot live amongsst yourss and we cannot sssurvive too far from aid if we need it. We lived alongssside humanity for tenss of thousssands of yearss."

"And became dependent?" Admiral Kepler asked, surprised. He figured the kobolds lack of reliance on technology made it relatively easy for them to live off the land.

"In the abssensce of 99.9% of our former populationsss and our breeding grounds...yesss," Saldarix replied, "You may believe that life can exsist in a vacuuum, Admiral Kepler, but it doess not. All living thingsss depend on each other."

"What do you need from us?" Hans asked, "That you cannot get for yourselves?"

"We need a compound called quarksite to sspawn more offsspring. It occurred naturally on Earth, but as far as we know, not here."

"Wait wait," Alyonna, the biologist in the room interrupted, "You need a specific compound...in order to reproduce?"

"Yesss."

"No other species I've ever heard of has a prerequisite like that."

Saldarix was silent for a long moment. His gaze flicked to Ahriman and passed over Shooby, who was enraptured like he was in heaven, on its way back to Aly, "Yesss, we need quarkssite to sspawn. It occurred naturally in our swampss before the risse of man desstroyed our habitatss. Ahriman..." Saldarix paused there remembering that several people in the room did not know Ahriman's secret... "Ahriman's ancestorss developed a way to make an artificial replacement from sssulfur and quartz, but the process involves ssulfuric acid. It is highly toxxsic to usss."

Hans looked at Aly. Aly shrugged, "There are many examples of species dying out from interruptions to their specific breeding systems, usually from habitat loss."

Turning to Ahriman, "Can you still make quarksite?"

"I brought some with me, and yes we can make more," Ahriman replied.

"This seems like a unique trading opportunity," Shooby cut in excitedly. "We have something they need. Perhaps they can trade us for something we need!"

"Like what?" Hans asked.

"Oh I don't know. What did the early settlers trade the native's for? Food for one–"

Saldarix's hiss cut off the young entrepreneur. Shooby's hand shot under the table to forestall an embarrassing development. "Your kind committed genosside againsst my people," Saldarix growled, "And now you would hold ssomething we need to rebuild in exssxchange for payment?"