Everyone at the conference table seemed to be focused on a different part of what they had seen in the reconstruction of events. Their concerns were, for the most part, what one would expect from their fields of expertise.

General Frances Robespierre, the commander of Task Force Proximas marine contingent, was stunned by the trees ability to create life, and on such a grand scale. Though there were only five new specieshigh elves, dark elves, fae, hill giants, and dwarvesmultiple billions of each had been birthed and brought to full maturity in a much shorter time than any human could even give birth to full term infants. Four months.... Four months! he thought. It only took them four months to outnumber the entire human population, and thats just their adults!

The thought of facing a potential enemy with that kind of ability to raise troops in that quantity was frightening, to say the least.

Commander Bryce Harrison, the admirals personal awakener-cum-bodyguard was sitting in a daze with his eyes glazed over as everything he knew about mana and what it could do was being overwritten in his mind. He couldnt fathom the thought of a human awakener ever becoming strong enough to terraform an entire planet. Not even a small one, let alone Proxima Centauri b, which was almost a fifth again the size of Earth!

Dr. Standing Bear was considering the ramifications of the trees demonstrated ability to replicate the biology of other species well enough to not only replicate them, but improve upon millions, if not billions, of years of evolution in such a short time frame. Not only that, they had done... something to separate Warrant Officer Lees consciousness and sustain it outside his physical body for an extended period of time. It was a feat that would potentially redefine a number of fields in quantum physics, specifically those that sought to discover whether or not humans actually had measurable, detectable souls.

As for Ayaka, she was caught between laughter and tears that the trees had just happened to catch the one person in the entire task force that would guide them in creating races specialized for something other than their strengths in combat. Perhaps the Terrible Teenagers obsession with fantasy had come in handy after all!

She didnt know whether to be thankful for that, or exasperated by the thought of all the sex objects the hormonal teenager would have dreamed up. The thought of a nine-meter-tall giant, naked and aroused, flitted past her mind and she couldnt help but shudder at the size of his weapon in the mental image and what it would do to... someone else, but definitely not her. Nope, she would never be in a position to see a naked hill giant at all, aroused or not.

But it was certainly better, she knew, that the races created by the trees were bred along the lines of suggestions made by a horny teenager than if they had been influenced by a scientistor even worse, a marine! If THAT had happened, the only solution she could think of would be to have the fleet back off to a safe distance and bombard the planet with c-fractional spinal-mounted kinetic penetrators until it shattered, then use manipulator fields to send the debris directly into Proxima Centauri itself.

If any of the marines twisted life forms were to spread around the galaxy, it would be an unrecoverable blow to humanitys prestige and ruin their chance of standing on the galactic stage alongside any other civilized life they met.

Ten billion... Fleet Admiral Bianchi sighed. The number... changed things.

What had begun as a mission of exploration with the possibility of first contact diplomacy had just become more complicated by several levels, and his was the head that wore the crown in the Proxima Centauri system. It would take at least a year to send a dispatch back to Earth and receive updated orders in return, so as the de facto plenipotentiary of the Terran Empire, his decisions over the next few hours could potentially steer the entire empires future direction.

Five light years used to be an unimaginable distance. All of human science had said that it would be virtually impossible to reach that far without a generation ship. But over the past few years, human science had been continually proven wrong and updated with new theories, new technologies, and new fields of study. Fields that had once been known as the home of crackpots, like quantum physics and any branch of science with xeno prefixed to it, were now flourishing on the bleeding edge of theoretical science like weeds after monsoon season. And with the discovery of the trees of Proxima Centauri b, those xenosciences would move from the theoretical to the practical.

Proxima, the admiral said.

[Yes, Admiral?]

Send Warrant Officer Lee to the meeting room. Weve seen through his eyes, now we need to hear his thoughts as we move forward with this new information on hand.

[Immediately, Admiral. He will arrive in approximately fifteen minutes from... now.]

Fifteen minutes later, Joon-ho arrived and was directed to the front of the conference room to brief the brass on his experiences over the previous months he had been stuck in the timeless meadow.

Lets begin with the million dollar question, Fleet Admiral Bianchi said. Are the trees, or their child spawns, hostile to humanity?

I dont believe that to be the case, Sir, Joon-ho replied. They seemed more curious than anything, and when they discovered that we were different from them, they were apologetic and almost... mournful over the loss of life they caused. To them, Sir, individuality is a vague and ephemeral concept. Theres only five of them, after all, that are sapient. The rest of the flora on the planet was the result of a failed attempt at creating life, one they didnt repeat for an immeasurable amount of time

Immeasurable, Warrant Officer Lee? Dr. Standing Bear cut in.

Yes, Maam. They appear to be immortal and time is a very loose concept for them. In speaking with them in the timeless meadow, I got the impression that it was at least one or two geological ages since their last attempt at creating life before they succeeded with the second batch, which will be born shortly.

Dr. Standing Bear nodded and indicated that she had no followup questions.

General Robespierre asked the next question. What are the combat capabilities of the new races theyre birthing?

I dont know, General, Joon-ho replied. They havent been born yet. I think its safe to say that theyll be awakeners from birth, though.

The general visibly paled at the thought. Humankind only had a few hundred million awakeners of their own, and the thought of a species with ten billion of them terrified him. He had seen the devastation a single awakener was capable of producing and the thought of that many of them would fuel his nightmares until the day he died, most likely.

Theyll soon have ten billion awakeners then, all birthed and raised to maturity in a matter of months. Did they give you any indication of whether or not that would be a repeatable achievement? he continued.

It wont be, Sir. They used all of the mana that theyd accumulated on and in the planet to create the variety of life they have now, or will have once theyre finally grown. Theres also the terraforming they did with their personal mana reserves, Sir. Unlike us, the trees are capable of storing mana within them and drawing from their own reserves, like other plants that have been mutating back home. But they emptied their tanks, Sir, and wont be able to repeat the growth process anytime soon.

The general nodded and fell silent, lost in thought, as he signaled that his questions were done.

The presentation and debriefing continued for a few hours before Fleet Admiral Bianchi called a halt to it for the day.

Go back and meet with your teams. Poll them and bring a list of questions for tomorrow....

Joon-hos eyes rolled back in his head and his vision turned black. He fell to the floor and began convulsing and frothing at the mouth; everyone in the conference room began panicking, especially Ayaka.

She refusedabsolutely and categorically REFUSEDto let the annoyance she had recently realized was like a little brother to her die.

Not on her watch.

Not again.

Not... EVER... AGAIN!