“Nyla, allow me to introduce our guest. This is Pinetil Axshram, prime representative of the Jix and newly appointed ambassador. She will be joining us on your world.” Cal said, his voice eliciting a flight response from the entire room. 

The room seemed frozen and Nyla wanted to run, but she fought through the fear and spoke, offering her hand to Pinetil as she had seen humans do when they met one another. “It is a pleasure to meet you Pinetil.” 

Pinetil brushed her hand across Nyla’s dismissively. “Yes, Yes. And its Ambassador Axshram, Prime Representative of the Jix to you.” 

Anger flared in Nyla’s eye and Cal smiled as a cruel grin passed across Nyla’s face. “I will try and remember that Pinetil.” Nyla said, watching the hand gripping anger of Pinetil as she turned on Nyla, her facade of calm dropping away as the woman stepped forward.

“No you will address me appropriately, or I will flay your hide from your body and then after that I will bring my people to your world and watch as they sterilize your entire race. I…” Pinetill froze, seeming to remember there were others in the room, and looked coldly behind her to where Cal sat watching with crossed arms.  

“Just you remember one thing Pinetil,” Cal said drawing himself up to his full height and flipping the switch on what Nyla would call his scary mode, “your people failed to fight the Shen, and from what I hear they are more than willing to take the fight to your people, as they want more of the strange alloy you build your ships from. Imagine, if you would Pinetil, that there was a singular man who could not only bring the full might of the Shen, but also the vastly superior might of humanity to bear on you. And then imagine that your people were stupid enough to send an envoy to act as ambassador to humanity, and that envoy managed to not only irritate that singular man, but also to threaten one of the few friends that man had….” 

Cal paused watching the color drain from Pinetil as her eyes seemed to get wider and wider with every word. Cal let it sink in and then spoke once more. “But I am sure your people are not as dumb as this scenario indicates, are they? Because if all you really want is war, then by all means, throw a punch so I can kill you and do what you just described to Nyla. If, however, it is not your intention to start a war and your people mean to stand by the agreement they made to not enter our territory, I would suggest you apologize and remember that for the duration of your time here, Nyla is for all intents and purposes, higher ranked than you, and personally protected by me. Understood?” 

Pinetil nodded and turned to Nyla. “Forgive me Nyla, I misspoke, I would not deign to tarnish your honor in any way. Consider it a failure of the communications tech.” 

Nyla, just happy to be done with the situation, nodded. “Apology accepted, but please do not speak to me like that again.” 

“Of course.” Pinetil said through clearly gritted teeth. The fact of Nyla making a demand of her offeneded her immensely. “If you will excuse me.” Pinetil turned and left the room. 

“Remember, tomorrow morning, zero-six-hundred, landing pad zeta niner.” Cal called after her with mocking civility. As soon as the door closed the smile fell from his face and he turned to Tannya. “So can I…” 

Tannya cut him off. “No. Nope. No! Do not kill her and hide the body. You are taking her with you. And don’t kill her there either. That is final Cal!” 

Cal looked sad but nodded. “Very well, let's go over the stuff with Nyla so we can get some rest and get on our way tomorrow.” 

“Very well.” Tannya said and took a deep breath before launching into a long explanation of how the uplift process worked. In her mind, Nyla summarized the key points. 

“First, unification, through alliance or violence, unification is the key. Second, ideological uplift, introduce basic scientific concepts which undermine the more fanatical of the religions. Third, trade, humanity will open trade and act as intermediaries between all the races, providing a sense of value to the things every race has to offer. And finally the uplift, humanity will provide full access to the galactic networks, and the medical/scientific advances those contain. From there it is up to us to use this knowledge as we see fit.” Nyla was repeating what was being explained to her in her head. 

“This is all good and well, but let's focus on the first step.” Cal said. “Nyla it will depend on you heavily if we are to unify your people without use of my particular skill sets. And I am sure that our dear friend Pinetil will be doing her utmost to ensure our failure. So I want to know, what do you think will be our greatest opposition to unification?” 

“The clans.” Nyla said without hesitation. “Namely the Clans of the Twelve. They will not bow. To bow for them would be the same as to die. There is only one path for proverbial diplomacy. We must strive for the ascension of another clan, a clan outside the Twelve, and that will not be easy.” 

“Hmm, please tell me more about the Twelve.” Cal said leaning back in his chair looking more interested in what she had to say than anything Nyla said before, so she obliged him and explained in great detail the inner workings of her people's culture.

After an hour or so Cal stopped her. “So basically it's a society that functions around strong male warriors and a system of marriage and enslavement of telepathically-gifted women to strengthen the weaker aspects of the men. Those who are not directly claimed by a clan or a man are used as breeding chattel. Does that basically summarize what your society is?” 

“Yes.” Nyla said embarrassed at how Cal had so easily summarized her people. “The only thing in addition to that is the belief in a broad pantheon of gods ranging from Aarag God of Might, to Yillna Goddes of Lust. The select god or goddess of worship varies from clan to clan and heavily influences who they will interact with and what their sources of income will be.”

“Can anyone just create a Clan?” Cal asked.  

“Not anyone. It has to be a man who has received the blessing of a god, and he must have at least four others to join his clan.” Nyla said, wondering why he asked. 

“Hmm. Interesting.” Cal said and then glanced out the window. “As much as I would like to finish my questions, we need to sleep. Tannya will you take care of everything as far as getting things loaded on my ship?” 

Tannya nodded. “It is already being done. You and Nyla get some sleep.” 

Cal and Nyla made their way back to the lodgings from the night before. The owner spoke quickly with Cal who smiled and thanked them. Heled Nyla to her room before retiring to his own room without another word. Nyla lay awake wondering if she would ever sleep knowing what was coming, but thankfully slipped into a restful sleep. 

The next morning the proprietor of the lodging woke her by gently tapping on her door. Nyla woke, dressed and ate a delightful breakfast before finding a transport waiting for her. Inside was a note from Cal which simply stated he had to leave early and would be waiting for her at the ship.

When Nyla arrived at the ship, thanks only to Artie and the driver knowing where she needed to be, she took a seat on a bench as Artie requested, and waited, despite the clanking and clunking she could hear inside the ship. She sat for several minutes and then felt someone staring at her. Nyla looked behind her and saw Pinetil standing over her. 

“What are you waiting for?” Pinetil asked, still staring down at Nyla in a way that made her feel uncomfortable.

“I was asked to wait here by Artie.” Nyla said, deciding she had nothing to worry about.

Pinetil harrumphed in a dismissive way, and made to go through the open door. Mid step Pinetil was flung backwards almost twice the distance she had walked from the bench to the door. “What in the name of the One God was that?!” Pinetill exclaimed angrily. 

From the door walked a humanoid robot that looked strikingly like one of her people. It was the same height as Nyla and displayed the musculature and appropriate clothing for a male of the Narvish. “Hello Nyla.” The robot said in a voice which was familiar.

“Artie?” Nyla asked, confused.  

“In the flesh!” Artie said, striking a dramatic pose. “Well maybe not in the flesh, but in the metal. Cal wanted me to be able to help when we are planet side again so he made me a frame to walk around and help with.”

“This is an AI?” Pinetil asked, looking with glee at the android in front of her. “Its coding will do.” She muttered to herself and pulled out a strange flat board and held it facing Artie, and waited with a victorious look on her face. The moment dragged on, and on, and on.

“I… I don’t understand?” Pinetil said in confusion, glancing in between the board and Artie. “Is it not working?” She muttered to herself once more.

“Oh it is working,” Artie said with a strange tone Nyla had never heard from the AI before, “I mean if you can call the mediocre level it operates at as ‘working.’”

Pinetil’s eyes bulged as she looked at Artie. Artie spoke once more. “While I understand you have a mission ambassador, and I will not physically harm you, please understand what you just tried to do counts as assault to AI. At least AI created by humanity. If you attempt to strip back my firewalls for any reason ever again. I will write and transmit a sentient virus capable of crippling your race’s entire communications network.” 

Artie waited a moment to see if Pinetil would respond. When she did not, Artie spoke again. “Very well. Now then ladies, if you would be so kind as to follow me.” He led them into the ship, thats interior seemed to have changed. After guiding them past several cargo holds which Nyla did not remember from her previous trip, Artie asked them to sit in the room Nyla recognized as the bridge of the ship. Cal was already seated and getting some systems running.

“Good morning ladies. Please take a seat. We will be returning to Nyla’s home world shortly.” Cal said with a smile to Nyla.

They sat and waited quietly until Cal spoke once more. “Alright, last chance if you need something before we go. Once we leave, I am not coming back for as long as possible. No? Nothing?” 

Nyla and Pinetil both shook their heads. Cal smiled and turned back to the screens around him, tapping buttons. “Artie, get us on the road.” 

“Understood Cal!” Artie’s voice said, emanating from the ship. As before Nyla felt a strange whine build. The sound put her on edge and made her head hurt despite knowing it was coming. 

“Standby for jump.” Cal said, and Nyla sank back into the chair, choosing to watch Pinetil who seemed to be suffering as Nyla was.. The whine rose higher and higher in pitch, almost in time with Cal’s counting. “Jump in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Jump!” 

Nyla let out a gasp and gritted her teeth. Pain washed over her, emanating from her head. Then as quickly as it had built, the whine dissipated and finally fell silent, and with it, the pain that she'd felt.

“Welcome back home Nyla. Let's begin our work then shall we.” Cal said, standing from his chair and guiding them outside. When they looked out, Nyla’s breath caught. She had expected them to re-emerge in the far north where they had left when she first met Cal. Instead, the area they were in was one every Narvish had heard of. 

In front of her, arrayed in a massive circle in a valley which had oddly perfect geometry to it, were the clanhalls of the Twelve Great Clans. 

Cal stood surveying the view. Nyla could see members of her race pointing to the ship and suddenly she felt very self conscious. Cal spoke. “We are going to build our own clanhall right here, and slowly bring the other clans under us. This is the beginning of a new time for your people Nyla.”

“The beginning of the end.” Pinetil said with a twisted sense of joy in her voice.

Suddenly a horn rang out and Nyla felt her heart skip a beat. The pattern and sound of the horn told her that the clan closest to them was being called to arms, and it was the First Clan of the Narvish, renowned for its brutality and merciless nature. She wanted to run, but she saw how firmly Cal stood, how he seems as a bulwark which storms would blow themselves out upon, and remembered she was here to change the world. 

“The beginning of the end of the old ways at the very least.” Nyla said and began relaying information to Cal about the First Clan. A group of several hundred Narvish, all wearing the colors of the First Clan and carrying vicious looking blades, poured up the small mountain they had landed on. Nyla thought to herself, “at least if we fail, we will die quickly.”