First Contact

Hu'urmo'o moved through the halls of the Unified Security Facility, surrounded by a dozen heavily armed Lanaktallan, all in heavy unpowered combat armor, all veterans of dozens of pacifications. He refused to give into fear like many of the other Lanaktallan Most Highs had. He left the elevator, noting that the custodial beings had polished the single door to a high reflective gloss.

Yes, there was a human out there. Terrans were obviously quite crafty. Yes, it had appeared in many different locations, seemingly at random. From hanging upside down on a street lamp, its hair and cape positioned as if it was standing on the ground in blatant disregard of how gravity works, to swooping through the air obviously using its cape as some kind of flying suit in reckless disregard of city flight planning, to standing in doorways menacingly, in clear defiance of anti-loitering ordinances.

But Hu'urmo'o was the Most High of the Council Security Division, and he had no fear of a lone Terran lurking about. There were millions of security beings available to provide security to anyone of Tenth Most High or above, even their families, if they had family as many chose not to.

"Remain out here, I have classified briefings and documents I must attend to," Hu'urmo'o ordered.

The dozen security beings saluted as Hu'urmo'o went inside his office.

Once inside Hu'urmo'o sat in his comfortable cradle, activated the anti-espionage systems, jammed a wad of nutricud into his mouth, ensured his datalink was ready for any input he needed, and turned on the desk-comp.

There were multiple messages, all listed as priority, waiting for him.

The first three were from various Most Highs of Eleventh Ranking or lower, demanding that Hu'urmo'o assign security to them. One was a report by the Parking Manager that reported seeing the Terran lurking in the underground structure where Fifth Most High or above parked their personal vehicles. More demands for protection, more demands that 'something be done' about the lurking Terran.

The odd thing was, Hu'urmo'o could not find any spike in the amount of missing people. On a planet of 35 billion beings went missing all the time, but there were no large spikes of missing nor was there a rise in murders or mysterious deaths. He ran the program repeatedly, widening the search parameters further and further. Still nothing.

Sighing, Hu'urmo'o opened up the last priority email, which had just come in.

When the inline image appeared Hu'urmo'o sat upright in shock.

It was the Terran. Tall, all in black, wearing a black high collar cape, onyx black hair swept back from the V of hair on the forehead, high cheekbones, patriachian nose, peaked eyebrows, cleft jaw, and burning red eyes. Staring out of the picture.

He was standing in front of Hu'urmo'o's personal vehicle!

Hu'urmo'o reached out to summon security when another email appeared, pinging the highest priority. Hu'urmo'o opened it reflexively.

The Terran had opened the door to Hu'urmo'o's vehicle and was pointing at the driver's seat!

Another email. Again with an attachment. Shaking, he opened the picture.

The Terran was standing in front of the vehicle with black eye coverings, gold necklaces on, and some kind of brimmed had on backwards. The car had its hood up to expose the engine, which was inexplicably covered in gleaming chrome parts, with scantily dressed Terran females displaying their udders gathered around the car!

He reached out for the button to summon security when another email came in. This time Hu'urmo'o didn't have to do anything, the email and picture opened itself.

Hu'urmo'o breathed a sigh of relief. Security beings were talking to the Terran who was showing the security beings some kind of licenses. Hu'urmo'o knew that the Terran would be arrested any moment. For a second Hu'urmo'o wondered why all the scantily clad Terran females were sitting on the trunk, the roof, or leaning forward to pick up buckets of foaming liquid or water hoses.

Hu'urmo'o had to admit, that was a lot of udders on display.

Another ping and it opened again.

Now the Terran was attempting to give the security beings wads of green and white paper. Perhaps some kind of bribe? Other security beings were talking to the scantily clad Terran females, being handed brown bottles of some kind of liquid.

Hu'urmo'o stood up out of his chair, outraged, when the next picture opened to show the security beings all wearing backwards brimmed hats, drinking the liquid in the brown bottles, with their arms around the scantily clad human women. Two security beings were throwing wads of green and white paper in the air.

The Terran all in black had snuck off to the side of the picture.

The next email opened to reveal a video clip. From the high security sec-camera in the garage!

The security beings, all five of them Lanaktallans, were dancing with the scantily clad Terran females, who were gyrating! As he watched four of the Lanaktallans sudden separated at the waist, their rear halves standing up to reveal scantily clad Terran females who stepped out of the costume and began gyrating with the others, some of them turning around and aggressively shaking their buttocks at Hu'urmo'o!

The lone Lanaktallan stepped forward and Hu'urmo'o heard him speaking over his implant! His words were accompanied by rhythmic music with a heavy base componenet. The lone Lanaktallan was wearing gold chains, some kind of shoes that looked extremely expensive, and was holding bottles of liquid and guns. Behind him the females were spraying each other with bottles of foaming liquid.

"My hooves ain't funny!"

"I get cash money!"

"My name's Harkamo'o!"

"And my rhymes are funky!"

Furious, Hu'urmo'o rushed out of his office, ignoring the two security beings that stood up to follow him. How dare those security beings cavort around with scantily clad human females around his personal limousine! Who did they think they were? How dare that Terran allow those mostly-naked females to crawl around on his vehicle!

The hallway was white tile on the sides, a brown carpet on the floor, holodisplays of the various Most Highs, with benches and potted plants on the sides. The door shut behind Hu'urmo'o as he trotted down the hallway, toward the highly polished elevator door. On each side was nearly a dozen doors leading to lesser Most High's offices.

The lights flickered and went out.

Hu'urmo'o stood stock still.

The lights came back on.

The Terran was staring down at Hu'urmo'o, arms straight out to the side, holding the edges of the cloak, his ebony hair slicked back, his bloodless lips pulled back to reveal his sharp predatory teeth including two long fangs.

The Terran hissed at Hu'urmo'o, then whirled in place, running down the hallway, arms outspread so that the cloak billowed out behind him, seemingly meters of cloth. He ran at the elevator, obviously intending on escaping. Hu'urmo'o could see the hallway and himself and the two security beings next to him in the door's reflective surface.

"AFTER HIM, YOU FOOLS!" Hu'urmo'o barked.

The two security beings clattered by Hu'urmo'o, galloping down the hallway.

Hu'urmo'o knew they had no chance to catch the Terran, who had almost reached the doors. Hu'urmo'o ground his cud impotently as the Terran reached the reflective door.

And slammed face first into it, thrown backwards by the force of his own impact, falling to the floor. The security beings had almost reached the Terran when the Terran suddenly stood up and lunged through the door to his left.

Hu'urmo'o almost rubbed his hands together as the two security beings rushed in after the Terran. He didn't even notice the faint fizzt feeling as he trembled with anticipation. That was Eighth Most High Gno'olo'o's office, and there was no way out.

When the door halfway between the elevator and Hu'urmo'o opened up and the Terran ran out, his cape streaming behind him, Hu'urmo'o's opened his mouth in shock and dropped his cud. The Terran went two doors down as the security Lanaktallan chased after him, opened the door and vanished into the office. The two Lanaktallan chased him, one of them completely oblivious to the fact his helmet was now on backwards. The Terran ran out a different door, the two Lanaktallan and Eighth Most High Gno'olo'o's mistress chasing him as he ran toward Hu'urmo'o and went into a different door.

The Terran came out a different door, the Lanaktallan out a third. They looked at each other and ran down the hallway to another door, disappearing inside. The Lanaktallan security beings ran out, one of them not noticing that on his back was a nude Terran female with golden hair wrapped around her nudity and throwing flower petals as the Lanaktallan galloped through a different door.

The two Lanaktallan security officers came out two different doors and watched as a nude Terran female, dripping wet with some kind of white cloth around her, stumbled out a door and into another one. The looked at each other and Hu'urmo'o saw their tongue fall out of their mouths, impossibly long, dragging on the floor behind them as they chased after the Terran female in a spastic, jerky, frantic gallop, who had left her towel behind when it caught on the door latch.

"Wow, they're blah bleh-blah bad at this," somebeing said from right behind and next to Hu'urmo'o.

"I shall have them sent to the mines for this!" Hu'urmo'o swore, shaking his fist as both Lanaktallan ran out being chased by the naked Terran female, who was swinging an umbrella at the two security officers, one of whom was yelling "WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP!" as they galloped through a third door.

He suddenly went stiff, turning and looking beside him.

The Terran stood there, nodding along, his cape wrapped around him, narrow at the feet and wide at the shoulders.

His two security beings rushed out of the office, one with a lampshade on his head and the other one with all kinds of red lip marks all over his helmet.

Hu'urmo'o pointed at the Terran. "GET HIM!"

To Hu'urmo'o's horror the human jumped on his back, flipped something over Hu'urmo'o's head and pulled on it, causing a bar of metal to slide into Hu'urmo'o's mouth, yelled "HI-HO, TINFOIL, AWAY!" and drove his heels into Hu'urmo'o's side. The Lanaktallan involuntarily squealed and galloped down the hallway as the lights flickered.

Both security guards were sitting on the bench, wrapped in a blankets that were ornately designed, headdresses made of colorful feathers on their heads, smoking pipes, watching stoically as Hu'urmo'o galloped by and into the just opening elevator doors, nodding to one another and going "mm-hmm".

The doors shut behind him.

Hu'urmo'o was found, on his side in a dead feint, next to his prized limousine.

The security beings who had found him looked at each other and shook their heads. They weren't going to bother the Council Security Most High during his scheduled nap. Although... it was weird that he had chosen to take his nap in the parking garage next to his limousine.

Maybe it was a trap to catch the Terran?

---------------

Shmo'ogo'o looked over the reports of activity involving the Terran. In the last two weeks the Terran had spent all of his time terrorizing the entire city. Most High's were finding themselves stalked by the Terran, who mostly did nothing but stare. While some beings claimed the Terran interacted with them, no evidence of such interaction had ever been found on security tapes. With only a handful of exceptions, the Terran never appeared on video survelliance.

It was all so tiresome to Shmo'ogo'o, who found himself constantly being asked to look over video footage only to find nothing more than a panicked Lanaktallan Most High galloping in circles.

Outside lightning flashed and thunder peeled, shaking the windows of Shmo'ogo'o's home office.

The vidcom rang, showing an unlisted secure number.

Wondering who could be calling on his secure line this late at night, Shmo'ogo'o thumbed the button.

"Yes?" He snapped.

The voice on the other side was crackly, low and evil.

"Have you checked the children?" the voice asked.

The line went dead.