I stood on the bridge watching the smaller vessel that emerged from the silver behemoth approach the Eden. I had prepared my crew to welcome the Humans, and they are currently lining up orderly, ready to greet the humans which are arriving soon.

I glanced to my side and saw the diplomatic corps busying themselves in preparation for the Human’s arrival. The Ship’s maid are also here, obviously curious as much of the maids are mostly human slaves. Sorry, i forgot, former slaves. As her majesty recently abolished slavery… for whatever reason.

To honest, i don’t really care about Humans or slavery in general. I was born and raised in a fairly remote world. There are slaves there, but i was kept away from them by my family. So I didn't really interact with them for most of my childhood. I was only interested in climbing the social ladder, and finally becoming an admiral in the navy.

Still, in my opinion at least, abolishing slavery does nothing but damaging the economy and tarnishing her majesty’s reputation. And enforcing the law is quite expensive, so far, to my knowledge, only the crown world of Zenith has abolished slavery. Other realms showed concern and condemned her majesty’s actions. And that’s about it.

“Sir, the Humans are coming,” Aglevis, who was standing beside me said. I glanced at him and I could see that he was curious to meet the humans. Actually, all of the crew here are curious.

The smaller sized silver vehicle edged closer to the ships deck. And stopping a couple of distance away, barely touching the deck. I looked at the symbol on the side of the vessel. I saw several white circles forming a flower. Is that supposed to be their coat of arms?

The entrance of the ship opened and there walked 2 men and a woman. All of them are wearing bizarre clothing. And the woman isn’t even human!

“Greetings! I am Ambassador George Hawk of the Terran Republic, here to represent Humanity and Terra. You must be the captain here,” the brown haired man now known as George Hawk said in broken elfish as he extended his arm for a handshake

“Greetings to you too, Ambassador. Indeed, I am Admiral Galanthar Mirilet, in charge of commanding this warship under the orders of her majesty,” I said whilst shaking his arms.

“This is Captain Julian Gonzalez and my secretary, Madelyn Mandela,” he introduced me to his associates.

As I thought, George Hawk is the ambassador, therefore he is a bureaucrat. That explains his rather fancy clothes and easy going attitude.

On the other hand, the one called Julian Gonzalez is a military man. Which is obvious as he is wearing an obviously military uniform, and a peaked cap with the white circles making up a white flower on it.

For the woman secretary though, she’s a civilian if i'm correct. Or a servant in service to both these men.

Aglevis led them to the Captain’s quarters to begin our discussion. They seem to marvel at the ship as their eyes were pretty much observing everything. And they were having a conversation amongst themselves. In human language of course, or else I would have known what they were talking about as they were talking pretty loud.

Eventually we reached the captain’s quarters. I ushered them in and they sat on the seats opposite of mine.

“Tea?” I offered.

“No thanks,” said sir Hawk.

“Alright then..”

“Now, allow us to reintroduce ourselves” sir Hawk announced, “I am George Hawk, sent here as an diplomat and ambassador of the Republic of Terra to initiate first contact with the species, and we come in peace”

“I am Captain Julian Gonzalez, the Captain of the Explorer and an escort for sir Hawk right now” Gonzalez introduced himself.

And finally, the girl with dragon horns introduced herself, “and lastly, I am Madelyn Mandela. Secretary of sir Hawk” she said with a slight bow.

“Oh…uhm” seeing this, Gonzalez slightly bowed too. Only to be stopped by Hawk.

“Sorry for the mild inconvenience”

“No worries,” I answered,” so, what exactly are you?” I asked them as a maid to put snacks on the table.

“Human obviously,” Sir Hawk answered while Madelyn took a snack.

“Humans.. I only know humans that don’t come from the abyss or wear fancy clothes,” and they don’t have carefree attitudes like they own the universe like they do..

“Well.. you’ll never know until you see it then,” Sir Hawk said while he spread his arms.

I could see his other colleague, who was it? Right… Gonzalez looked at Hawk like he was disappointed with his son. Eventually he sighed and took a bite of a snack.

“Well then, several weeks ago, her majesty has ordered me to escort the ‘void humans’ as she calls you, to our capital world, Zenith.” I said as I looked at the three of them, sir Hawk had changed his attitude and became serious after what he did before. “We do not know where you came from, nor do we know your intentions. I’m asking sir Hawk to explain things to us so we could better provide and understand you.”

“Very well,” Sir Hawk said, “as you know, your people refer to us as the ‘void humans’. Although it is true to some extent, we actually originate from the planet Terra, or Earth, depending on where you were born.” he explained.

“Pardon my interruption. But do you have a God named Lady Terra, or Terra by any chance?” I ask Hawk. the humans named their world after the god of nature, surely they still in some form worship lady Terra like they used to.

“Uhh.. honestly, i don’t know. We have many religions, but the biggest ones are Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. Which makes up around.. 58 percent of people’s belief” Hawk answered.

“Wait.. 58? I thought you said they’re the biggest religions?” I went wide eyed, “wait, what’s the human population in Terra?” I decided to ask him about the human population, 58 percent is not that much if you can’t translate it to the actual number.

“Population of Humans in Terra, eh?” he raised one eyebrow, “let’s see.. About 11 Billion according to the latest census.” he said.

‘11 billion? That’s a bit low for a race that hails from the void.’ I thought, but what Hawk said next made me spit out the tea I was drinking.

“But in total though, there are approximately 900 plus quadrillion Humans spread out across millions of star systems in the Milkdromeda galaxy, which is nine hundred with fifteen zeros behind it. And that’s according to the latest census, which was 10 years ago..” he explained.

“Th- that many, but your capital only has 11 billion?”

“Well in the early days,” *Cough*, “millions of years ago. Terra was an overdeveloped shithole.” Hawk Explained, “It was grossly polluted, its natural resources were dried up, and the planet’s getting hotter every year. Naturally, when space colonization was first introduced, people signed in droves to start a new life out there in space. Back then there were only two planets available for colonization.”

“When was this? How do you develop a world so much that it becomes unlivable?” I decided to ask him.

“Capitalism, my friend.” Hawk casually explained. “Private companies exploited nature for profit. And naturally, when space travel became available, wealthy companies started to expand into space and began exploiting new worlds after squeezing Terra dry- *Cough*” he coughed, “pardon me,” he said as he reached for the tea served at them and gulped it in one drink.

“Where was i? Right, how capitalism destroyed Terra.” he said as he puts the tea cup back on the table. “Eventually, the government heavily regulated the economy, and made the Sol system, a star system in which Terra is located, a Special Star System or SSS for short. Basically, the sol system is the capital system of the republic, and Terra is the capital. Are you with me so far?” he asks.

“Yeah, go ahead.” I answered.

“So, most embassies and government buildings are located in the Sol system. The presidential palace is located in Rome, Rome island, Terra. But the congress is located in the orbit of Terra, and most government buildings are located across the Sol star system, the embassies of other empires are usually built in the orbit of Terra, Venus, and Mars. Plus, the Sol system and Terra are the brains of the entire republic. The people living there are mostly the upper class, and government employees. All in all, the Sol system has a total of more than 200 Billion humans living in it.” Hawk finished.

It took a good while for me to digest all that information. How can a world with 12 billion people rule an entire empire of more than 900 quadrillion people?! How can they ensure that those populations won’t rebel and declare independence?!

It doesn’t take a genius to realize that these humans aren’t the same as those millions of years ago. These humans are radically different, it’s somehow scary how foreign they are.

“On the last question, does your ‘galaxy’ have dragonmen?” i decided to ask them about that secretary with horns, could there be other races than humans too out there?

“Oh boy do i have a story for you…uhm Julian you explain it” Hawk looked at Gonzalez.

“What? Why me?” he suddenly woke up from being half asleep.

“You live in Terra so you might now more than me,” Hawk told him.

“Uhm where do i begin?” said Gonzalez as he fixed his posture, “so basically, two guys on earth managed to do some black magic called biological engineering. And they made fantasy races into real things, except they’re just humans… but with extra accessories for body parts.” he explained.

“Huh. I never thought I'd hear body parts as accessories.” I said.

“Yeah, they’re just accessories. The horns, animal ears, and tails are just decorations. They do not serve any other purpose than just looks. Well the same can’t be said for cat girls and their equivalent. So, returning to the two guys making fantasy races. After the government found out about them, through unpaid business loans, they were tried but eventually released because what they’re doing was technically not illegal. As for the created fantasy races, they were eventually made into citizens and integrated quickly to the human community, as they do not have any culture of their own. Because they were literally made from thin air.” Gonzalez finished.

“Wooh that was long, I wanna get drunk once we get back to the Explorer,” said Gonzalez as he stretched his arms.

That certainly was long, and i still cannot comprehend creating lives out of nowhere like that.

“Pardon, but i have one more question, why do you call your capital world Earth, and not Terra like Sir hawk did?”

“Oh, that’s just cultural difference between people born in the inner circle near the Sol system and the people born outside the inner circle, don’t think too much about it,” Gonzalez said.

“Then i would-” Sir hawk was about to say something before a crew member barged in my office.

“Pardon the sudden interruption Sirs, but we have a pirate fleet heading towards us”