The Gate Opens (3/3)

Everyone crowds around their captain, and they watch the images flickering and flashing on her tablet.

There, they see the scouting drone get closer and closer to the grey walls.

"What's that carved on the walls?" one of the soldiers asks "I see an emblem."

"Don't know," Lena shrugs. "We'll just take this drone back with us and let the big-wigs figure it out."

Mr. Rine – the soldier trained to handle the scouting drones – is carefully directing the flying contraptions higher and higher until it lifts over the wall…

… and the sight is breathtaking.

Just over the wall, everyone sees a large city sprawled outward. Off in the distance is what looks like an old fashioned palace. The streets are paved with precious metals, and the houses to the side are spacious – many of them even being interconnected with large courtyards in between them.

Just from this one image alone, Captain Lena is already guessing that this castle is deserted. All the streets are overgrown with weeds, the street signs are so wind-worn that their etchings have long since been rubbed off. In every sense, this city looks like it's overtaken by nature.

Seeing the overall state of disrepair here, Captain Lena's heart relaxes. 'I'd hate to have to meet the locals here…,' she thinks with dread. 'I don't want to get in a fight if I can help it.'

Just when the captain thinks this, the drone is forcibly pulled from the air by some invisible power.

If Yesee had seen this with her own eyes, rather than through the eyes of a lifeless golem, then she'd have felt the powerful Dravar magic being used, and she'd have felt completely horrified.

The Enchantment research in Lareen has become so advanced by now that anything their engineers make WILL be stronger than any spell an individual mage can cast.

So, the idea of someone using a telekinesis spell to rip the golem out of the air without effort is preposterous.

Alas, when the golem tumbles chaotically through the air, everyone actually thinks that the flight-blades broke, and the emergency levitation spell failed to activate.

Everyone is expecting the drone to break on the ground, and for the image feed on Lena's tablet to go dark.

Instead, after the drone stops shaking, it's vision goes stable, and they see… a rather strange, alien-looking person staring deeply into the drone's empty eye socket.

Seeing the face of the native holding the drone, Yesee (and even Lena) blushes a little. This man is, by far, the most beautiful person they've ever met before. His face is perfectly shaped, and his skin smooth.

The only thing giving this native away as a nonhuman is the set of long, pointy ears stretching out past his shoulders.

Other than the man's alien appearance, the Lareen soldiers also notice that the native is wearing black and silver armor, and he has a sword on his waist.

The Lareen soldiers below watch (through the drone's eyes) as the pointy-eared alien turns around and babbles off in a strange language while making beckoning motions with his free hand.

Moments later, several more pointy-eared, beautiful men walk up and stare with naked curiosity at the drone.

"Are they… arguing with each other?" one soldier next to Captain Lena asks.

"Wait… I think they're doing something," Miss Yesee mumbles.

It appears that the beautiful natives have grown bored with the scouting drone. The first pointy-eared man casually crushes the drone in one hand, and the remote image on Lena's tablet goes dark.

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For several minutes, Captain Lena discusses their next course of action with her troup.

More accurately, Lena has to talk some of her more adventurous subordinates down. They want to go up to the castle and meet the people there.

However, Captain Lena tells them all, "We're going home now. This trip would be completely wasted if we die without being able to report back."

And so, they pack up and leave – all while trying their best to not leave any traces of themselves.

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Once Captain Lena and her soldiers return through the World Gate, she immediately hands her tablet off to her superior officer. That thing contains all of the images that their golems had saved with their arcane eyes.

With that out of the way, she's summarily dismissed back to her quarters. All things considered, it was a short journey, and she still has a lot of energy. However, her commanding officer insisted that she take a rest.

... More than likely, he probably thought that the trip was a lot more draining than it actually was… simply because she looked like she was about to throw up after coming back through the portal.

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Behind the scenes, several Lareen scientists and historians go over footage captured from the other side.

They go over the images of the grave signs, and they try to analyze the language written there. They check their historical records for any matches.

Frankly, given the long history and sheer number of dead cultures in their world, it's estimated that it'll be a while before they find anything useful.

In the meantime, most of the generals and public figures are crowded around a screen full of the far more… interesting samples that were brought back.

"Are those… aliens?" one onlooker asks. The speaker is a middle aged man wearing a fine black tunic. He's not a scientist or a general. Rather, he's one of the wealthy investors that's helped to fund this whole expedition. "I thought they'd be a little more…"

"Alien looking?" one of the scientists beside him finishes for him. "Well, they at least have strange ears…"

"Is there anything we know other than that they have pointy ears?" the businessman asks anxiously.

"No…," the researcher says, puzzled. "It's honestly surprising that these natives look so similar to humans. Just how unlikely is it for two completely isolated species to evolve to look so identical?"

Since humans had discovered Evolutionary theory centuries ago, the leading intellectuals among the Lareen have long theorized that if they ever WERE to find intelligent life elsewhere, then they'd be unrecognizable.

What's with these people having their eyes, noses, ears, and mouths in the same place as a human? How unlikely is it for them to even have 5 fingers as well!? Even more shocking, is that these alien natives are even more beautiful than a human!

How unlikely is that?

With this in mind, the researcher decides to tell his investor his thoughts. 'It's best to let Mr. Wallet know that we're finding answers for him…'

So the scientist opens his mouth and says, "It's quite possible that we're not the first people to go through the portal before. It's quite possible that humans have gone through in the past, then evolved to look slightly different than us. In a way, these pointy eared people could be a long-lost cousin species."

(Well… he's not COMPLETELY wrong there. The Arkin COULD be considered as a cousin species to humans.)

"Well, make sure you let me know when you're ABSOLUTELY sure," the black clothed man says. "I'd hate to publish false information to the public."

"But Mr. Yelma!" the magic research exclaims, "Are you sure? Wouldn't it cause the citizens a lot of panic if we suddenly told them that aliens exist?"

Sure, the old stories talk about giant winged snakes that breath fire and take the shapes of men. There are also old myths of strange people with animal features.

But these myths are just that – myths. They're just fossils left behind by extinct cultures that were full of strange, superstitious people.

Other intelligent races can't REALLY exist, right?

"Why wouldn't we let the people know?" Mr. Yelma shrugs. "Honestly, given how many other countries and businesses are curious about our project, I wouldn't be surprised if half the world doesn't already know what we're doing here."

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Over the next several days, the researchers and mages study the samples brought back by Captain Lena and her troupe.

The entire time, Mr. Yelma and his secretary linger around the labs anxiously. This project is so important that he can't afford to allow any of his subordinates to oversee it.

Probably one of the easiest things for them to confirm is the identity of the emblem of the tower and crossed swords, which was found etched on the walls of that floating fortress their scouting team saw…

"Brancotte?" Mr. Yelma exclaims. "You're saying that you've actually learned what the emblem means?"

"Yes, sir," the head researcher says as he pushes his glasses up and pushes his long, white hair out of his face.

"…What's Brancotte?" the businessman asks – puzzled.

"Ehem," the white-haired researcher coughs to clear his throat. "It's an antique empire."

"What DO we know about it?"

"It's…," the older man has an awkward pause. "All we really know is that they controlled what's now the Aldmeri Continent. That empire was right around here, actually. Their language is quite dead by now, but if you go to the Grelan and Teersa provinces, the people there will probably recognize a few words from Brancotte."

Mr. Yelma sighs heavily. "Oh, goodness. When the press finds out about this, I'm sure the commoners are going to make up a lot of stupid theories about what's on the other side…"

"What's wrong with that?" Yelma's secretary asks with raised eyebrows. "The commoners babble all the time. That doesn't hurt anybody."

"I suppose…" Still, Mr. Yelma can't help but feel sour about it. He's had too much experience of people placing high expectations on others, only to lash out when they're disappointed – as if it WASN'T their fault in the first place for being idiots!

Look at what happens to those presidents and senators? When the commoners vote for a person, they prop their chosen politician up like some sort of god. Then, when it turns out that their leader is just a normal person that makes mistakes and fails at things, they lash out violently and smear their 'god' in the dirt. Either that, or they stupidly cling to their 'god' and completely try to ignore any evidence that their 'god' isn't perfect.

'Either way, those commoners are just a stupid rabble,' Mr. Yelma thinks sourly. 'It's best to ignore them as much as I can.'

"Is that really all you know about Brancotte?" Mr. Yelma asks.

"I… I…," the researcher goes a little pale in the face. "Given the great Fezrin Purge 30,000 years ago, and the burning of the Alessi Library 80,000 years ago, we don't have that many historical records of anything beyond that, much less, 150,000 years ago."

"Stop giving me excuses," Mr. Yelma scowls. "I'm not going to dismiss you just because there's something you don't know. Use your contacts in the academic world and find someone who can answer these questions. At the very least, find someone who can speak the Brancotte's language."

There has to SOME dedicated historians out there that they can scrounge up! The world is a big place!