"Ok, everyone. Let's step back and give Morcai an opportunity to explain itself before we burn it at the stake. Ok?" Alex said.
Everyone relaxed a little at that. A forced relax, but a relax nonetheless.
"I will explain the situation to Morcai, because no one else seems capable of doing that without losing their cool," Alex said.
"Up until very recently on Earth, people were ranked and oppressed based on their skin color, with the white people being the primary culprits of the oppression," Alex said.
"So when you implied that white aliens are somehow superior to other aliens, everyone attributed that history and viewpoint to you and what you were saying. Does that make sense?"
"Oh. I'm so sorry that happened. That's terrible. Unfortunately, something similar happens in my culture. I don't agree with it, but the white ones are the ones in charge, and they make the rules," Morcai said.
"What I was saying though is that white aliens usually insist on leading important missions, which is why it's confusing that they wouldn't have one on this mission, unless they didn't consider it as important as another mission somewhere else."
"Ok. See? That makes sense. And you all were about to murder poor Morcai here over a misunderstanding of word placement. Right? Guys?" Alex said, nervously.
"I'll admit I jumped to conclusions. I apologize, Morcai," Athena said.
"I do too," Ludos said, giving Morcai a hug. Morcai made sure to break the hug before it went on too long.
"It's ok. I'm used to being yelled at," Morcai said with a smile.
"Oh no. Honey. Come here," Hermes said, and he hugged Morcai. "You're so sweet. Nobody should be yelling at you. We'll kill all those nasty aliens who hurt you. Am I right, guys?"
"Yeah!" Everyone said it without thinking about it.
"I'm glad we're all bonding over our mutual hatred of bullies, but maybe we should get back on topic?" Alex said.
"Right," Hermes said. "Back on topic. Why would the aliens not prioritize this mission as heavily as others, Morcai?"
"Maybe they knew we would chase after the first open portal, and they waited at the next ones so they could get in and out before we even noticed," Morcai said.
"Pull up satellite imaging of the other portals," Athena said.
"You know, we wouldn't even have satellite imaging if it wasn't for me, so you'd think you'd be nicer to me," Hermes said, but he pulled up the imaging anyway.
"I am being nice to you," Athena said. "This is me being nice."
Displayed on the screen were about a hundred portals, some open, some still forming. There were four currently open, including the one Alex and Sophia went through.
The first portal was deserted, but the other three had a guard standing outside, keeping watch. And they were all white aliens.
"Well, wouldn't you know it? Looks like you were right, Morcai," Athena said. "They must be still inside since they have guards. Let's send teams to all three locations."
Athena looked at Alex and Sophia, "Are you guys ready to go, or do you need to sit this one out? Take a break?"
"I'm ready to go if Sophia is," Alex said. Maybe it was his psychometabolism or his enhanced physical condition, but he felt fine. A little emotionally drained, sure, but it was nothing he couldn't push through.
Alex looked at Sophia. Not to be mean but she looked terrible. She could barely keep her eyes open. "I think I'm going to need to sit this one out. Bring Bjorn or Chet along if you need a familiar face," she said.
"I'll take Chet," Alex said. He wanted to smooth things out with Chet like he had with Sophia. "By the way, you're going to want large teams to tackle the other two portals. I know Sophia and I made it look easy with two, but it was not. We got lucky. And if the white aliens are stronger than the blue ones, then you're definitely going to want to throw everything you have at them."
"Duly noted," Athena said.
"I think that's the end of our debrief," Hermes said. "I had other things on the agenda, but it looks like we have more pressing matters to deal with. Good luck, Alex."
"It was good working with you, Sophia," Alex said, turning to look over at her, but she was fast asleep in her chair.
Chet and Alex got geared up for the mission. Alex assured Hephaestus that he was fine using the same pack he had for the last mission, but Hephaestus insisted that Alex take a new pack. Just in case anything broke during the last mission.
Alex took the new pack with a chuckle and the extraction device. When Chet was ready to go, Alex pressed the button on his device, as did Chet, and they disappeared.
They arrived in a forested area. They were supposed to be just uphill of the portal and the alien guard, so as long as they walked downhill, they would find it.
Alex started walking slowly downhill, trying to make as little noise as possible, and then he remembered he had psychic powers and he strode purposefully down the hill.
They came to a flat clearing that held the portal in it. A white alien guard stood next to it just like in the satellite imagery. It occurred to Alex that he should have asked Morcai why the white aliens were in charge of their society.
He assumed it was just because they had stronger psychic powers, but there might have been more to it than that. Oh well. He would just have to figure it out firsthand.
Alex walked into the clearing with his hands and his forcefield up. He had put it on Chet before they left Olympus. Chet followed close behind with his hands up as well.
Alex initiated communication with his open telepathy skill.
'Hi. We seemed to have gotten lost, and we were just wondering why you're guarding that open portal in the middle of the forest?' Alex thought.
'I don't ask questions. I follow orders.' The alien thought. 'Hey, how can you-'
Alex lifted the alien with a telekinetic choke, like Dasrene had done to him recently.
[New skill created: Telekinetic Choke]
The alien lifted his gun and fired it, but he couldn't see where he was aiming with his head tilted back by the choke, so he hit the ground. It sizzled on impact and melted the pine needles covering the ground.
It was one of those corrosive weapons from the scouting outpost, which felt so long ago, even though it had only been a couple weeks. And that was only because of the time dilation chamber that contained Ludos' mansion.
For Chet, it was yesterday. Suddenly Alex felt a wave of fear hit him. He dropped his forcefield and barely got his psychic shield up in time before the fear took hold.
Alex went to shield Chet, but Chet was already gone. Alex looked around and finally spotted him about 100 meters away, standing around looking confused.
Alex would get Chet in a moment. He tightened his grip on the white alien's throat until the alien went limp. He lowered his body to the ground and went to go get Chet.
Interesting. So the white ones could use emotion control. But the blue ones couldn't? There was a lot more to these aliens than Alex initially realized. He still hadn't found out what those slime monsters were.
Were they a lower form of alien that the head aliens kept as guard dogs? He didn't know, and frankly, didn't care enough to remember to ask Morcai.
He really would need to sit down with Morcai and get a rundown of intel on the aliens at some point, though.