Chapter 179 Filus, The Gray

Once I was back at the base, there were some soldiers waiting for me, and they guided me over to the building that the Drakar had broken out of. Once I was to the big hole in the walk and turned to the three younger men.

"There is no need to follow me. You can go freshen up in the trees. There will be food and water along with hot showers if you want," I said, and the three men's eyes went big.

"Like real hot water?" One of the men asked, and one of the others pushed him.

"Don't be a dip shit. What other kind of hot water is there? We had cold water if we got them. Just shut up and do as the man says. Be happy he isn't asking you to run laps because that is where I would have you!" The other man snapped, then the other two straightened up, and then the man turned to me. "Thanks for getting rid of that bag of wind, Crass. Your wife is doing some house cleaning as well, but not quite as violently as you did."

"Oh, I can imagine that she is shuffling people's positions around. Thank you for your hard work. I know it is probably a thankless job most of the time. My name is Daniel," I said and offered my hand.

The man took it, giving me a firm handshake, and then said, "Corporal Riley. Good to see that you are somewhat human."

"Somewhat might be a slight underestimation. I am still human, but I have extraordinary abilities," I said with a laugh, and Riley snorted at me.

"You are about as human as my snake boots. Extraordinary abilities? No, that is what some of these aliens have. You can just say no to our bullets and grow giant trees that could fit skyscrapers in. Whatever you are, it is not human. You are the definition of an alien among aliens. I have been here for five years, and I have seen some things, but not like you. There were other creatures like you, and I have heard reports about you stopping them all," Riley said, and I nodded.

"That is true for the most part. I guess that I am what I am," I said with a shrug.

"I am glad to be on your side; that is all I am saying. Talk to you later, chief," Riley said and turned to follow the men to the trees.

I guess it was kind of silly to try and convince someone that I was human with the giant still squirming sack. I would have to work with Sofia on some poisons and paralyzing toxins that we can produce with our bodies to make this type of thing easier.

Not that I wanted to get in the business of snatching people, but this was a valuable point in the future. Not every world we were going to find that was habitable was guaranteed to have intelligent life, but I had grand plans for the future.

I wanted to create a multi-layered shell world that was segmented into different biomes. This way, we could collect samples from planets and recreate them in the layers of our shell world. Something of this scale was going to take a long time, but after the first jump, I would be looking for a large area that was filled with asteroids to hide in.

From there, it would just be a matter of time to harvest enough material to create the first couple of layers. If we could do that, then we could start exploring.

Sadly, humans were nowhere near close to being ready for this. We were all going to have to go through many changes and hurdles to get the desired state I wanted us in before we went out exploring.

I think it was safe to say that we were never truly safe. While we might not always be running, we would never be able to sit still.

I walked into the building and looked around, but there was nothing but a large open room. There was, of course, another hole, and I headed through it. The area past had some blood, but there were no bodies, so Sofia must have got whoever was here cleaned up or zipped up.

"Daniel! Come over here!" I heard Sofia call from far down the hall, so I picked up my pace.

Once I got down to where I heard Sofia calling from, I found her alone in the room with a gray alien.

"Did you make a friend?" I asked as I walked into the room, looking around for Binder and Jack.

"Sort of. The other two are down below looking at whatever is down there, but this person is intriguing me," Sofia said, waving for me to come over. "Filus, this is Daniel that I was telling you about."

The gray man was everything you were looking for in a little green man that was gray. His head was oversized, and his eyes were black and beveled. Filus wore a simple brown robe, but the material looked very soft.

"It is a pleasure to mean one of your kind in the flesh. This is a rare case indeed. To think that I would be the first to make contact with a physical Annokale. As I was introduced, I am Filus, known as a Gray. We are interstellar farmers, if you will. We try to guide growing races from the darkness without trying to interfere too much. When you kill each other or yourself, we try to collect bits and parts to put you back together. We are in the business of trying to keep all races alive," Filus explained, and I nodded.

"The pleasures are all mine. You are the first alien species that hasn't seemed hell-bent on killing me," I chuckled, and the alien smiled at me.

"The races you speak of are most of the reasons why we do what we do. The Gideons and Drakar are both scourges that stretch across the universe. They go and scoop up entire civilizations and then force them into slavery. We try to help where we can, but we are not fighters. The best that we can do is collect samples of the DNA and then replicate them on another planet. While this does not save the original species, this does allow their kind to live on," Filus explained, and I nodded.

This was all in line with what Star Child had told me about the Grays, but I was glad to know that they seemed peaceful in person. I knew that there was much more to them than this, but I was trying to give these abductors the benefit of the doubt, mostly.

Since I was doing the scan thing now more often, I ran it over Filus, but a message popped up.

[Scan Blocked]

"You should always ask before you scan a friend, Daniel. We, Gray, are more machine than biological, so we are normally the ones that scan," Filus said with a smile, blinking his eyes, but the eyelids came from the sides.

"Does that mean you aren't going to let me scan you?" I asked, not really liking this. I usually didn't push to scan things, but I also didn't get denied like this.

"Is there a reason for your scan?" Filus asked, but Sofia spoke up.

"Is there a reason for you to refuse a simple scan?" Sofia asked, and I agreed with her.

"Our bodies hold many secrets, and those belonging to the Gray. Humans have already died trying to do a much simpler scan on me after refusing my request," Filus said, the alien's tone never changing, but I wasn't going to be intimidated.

"Good thing that I am not human. Sofia, leave the room, please," I said and waited till she did so. Once she was gone, and she left without question, I turned back to the Gray. "I don't have the patience for this kind of thing right now. If you haven't noticed and have a very tightly bound Dracos on my back, I want to deal with it. You are intentionally trying to hide something from me or many things."

"I have a right to hide secrets," Filus replied, and I crossed my arms.

"What about the rights of the humans that you took? I know that you have taken humans and done experiments on them. This includes the **** of our women. You say it is for the better of all races or something? Then what I am about to do is for the betterment of the universe. You have two choices. Submit to a scan, or I will split you in half and do it the old fashion way," I threatened.

This was not up for debate, and after two explicit refusals, I was starting to lose my patience. These creatures were farmers but zookeepers more than anything. All they did was take what they wanted and start new worlds to watch and control.

"I will have to politely decline. I have been alive for nearly as long as this planet, and now my time is at an end, it seems. I will return to the stars that bore me," Filus said and then started to scream as his body started to melt like hot butter.

I tried to scan the creature again, but it read me the same message. I was left to watch Filus melt into a stinking and disgusting brown pile of sludge.