the second colony

[WP] Humanity has finally achieved interstellar travel and has been acknowledged by other intelligent alien civilizations. The aliens were accepting and shared many pieces of information with the humans. However, what was most surprising is that they called us the "Second Colony of Humans."

*****

Only the soft hum of the working machinery filled the silence left by the ambassador's remark. Everyone had heard the same thing in their earpiece, and the gravity of the information, it appeared, hadn't been lost on any of us. I turned to the joint chief of staff who was standing next to me and the two of us shared a moment of prolonged eye contact. I turned and glanced at the personnel behind me, who were all giving me the same look, as though quietly in one loud voice saying:

Ask about it.

"In time," continued the ambassador. "We will reduce emissions to the galactic federal standard of 0.8 bits per–"

"Ahh, excuse me," I interjected. "Apologies for the interruption, Ambassador Terk. Did you just now refer to us as the second colony of humans, or was that a mistranslation of the software?"

The ambassador looked up from his paperwork into the camera. He stared at all of us through the big screen as though unsure of where to begin. He turned to his left and pressed a few buttons on a monitor just offscreen. "No. There appears to be no issue with the transliteration software. My words should be reaching you just fine. Is there confusion about what I just said to you all?"

"Jesus Christ," uttered someone from behind me.

"Okay, one second, ambassador," I said as I leaned forward and took a deep breath. The forty or so people in this room were about to learn of something so incredible that it would doubtlessly redefine our understanding of history in an irreversible way– so profound were the potential ramifications that it may very well earn itself a top classification. After being certain of what I wanted to say, I looked back up at the screen and met the ambassador's patient gaze.

"Forgive our ignorance, Ambassador. But we, as a species, are unaware of a colony of humans that predate us by such a stretch of time as to consider them a separate grouping. Could you elaborate on that further please?"

The alien smiled. It didn't come naturally to him; he'd been specially trained on how we humans read faces, and wanted to convey a positive response. We knew it was merely a facsimile of emotion, but it worked well enough. We were about to get answers.

"Unbelievable," the ambassador responded finally. "Your ancient ancestors did not leave records in stone, at the very least?"

"How ancient are we talking, Ambassador?"

"Twenty-million full solar revolutions, Director."

My mouth fell open involuntarily– something I had been carefully trained not to do in front of our new intergalactic allies. The information was just that startling. I quickly pulled myself together as the room filled with excited murmurs and expletives. I shared their energy entirely, but I needed to remain composed.

"I can confirm we were not aware of their existence," I said into my mic. "Anything you could tell us about them would be greatly appreciated."

"I'll gather a packet together and make sure it finds your hands," responded the ambassador. "Off the top of my head though, I can tell you that they populated the continent you know as South America. They did venture away from South America in search of other lands to settle. However, grasslands were sparse at that point in the history of your planet, and they had become accustomed to living in thick vegetation."

"Incredible," I said just above a whisper. "Did they understand farming?"

"They did, I believe, have extensive knowledge of agriculture. They had a system of writing, a code of laws, towns, armies, skyspears... they were quite advanced considering what they had to work with."

The room again filled with quiet excited voices. This was completely unexpected. It didn't make sense based on everything we knew about the earth. In fact, it seemed impossible.

"By skyspears," I responded. "You mean, of course, sky scrapers? As in tall buildings?"

"Negative." said the ambassador. "Sky spears is the correct translation. Heavy artillery to be used in the skies."

"Are you saying," my joint chief of staff cut in. "That they were locked in aerial combat? Did they achieve flight?"

"Negative," responded the ambassador quickly. "They were under constant threat from large avian and reptilian species that preyed on them from above."

The room fell silent again. I knew what I needed to ask; the boys would never forgive me if I didn't. I swallowed and folded my arms, adjusting my stance as I stared back at the alien on the monitor.

"Are you saying... I'm sorry, did you say flying reptilians?"

"You know them colloquially as dragons, Director."

That was the end of all decorum in the room. Even the ambassador seemed surprised by the sudden outburst. General Shu was trying to retain order behind me as I stared into the monitor with wonder in my eyes that I probably hadn't had since I was a little boy.

"I see," the ambassador smiled again. "So they did leave something behind."

"Dragons?" I asked.

"How?" asked my colleague. "We would have some kind of fossil evidence of creatures that big. We have fossils from creatures much older than twenty million years."

The alien looked off-screen for a moment and nodded before turning back to us. "Actually, it appears that dragons were made mostly of cartilage. In order for them to be able to fly at all, they needed to be very lightweight. I am also being told that they had great helium sacs inside of their chest cavity to assist with their lift. This helium was also used as a combustible agent to allow them to spew great fires over the human settlements so as to flush them out of their buildings and into the open."

I laughed softly to myself and looked up at the screen. The alien stared back blankly.

"Ambassador Terk... are you fucking with us?"

He smiled. "Yes, Director. We're fucking with you."

A few aliens off-screen leaned in and smiled at us, and the room erupted with laughter around me. I smiled bigger than I had in years as my colleague wheezed next to me.

"You got us good, Terk."

"To a long-lasting friendship," he responded.

*****

THE END