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Chapter 2 - The Tacitus

I turned around and looked at him, not sure if I would choose to believe him and risk it all or if I would allow this opportunity to pass me by.

"I will take the fact that you turned around as a sign that you are at least considering the offer of my employer". The leader of the group of men was still in my lecture hall.

"Before I accept the terms of service that will come with working for your employer, I would have to meet him in person.". I said to them because I always made it a point of meeting anyone that I worked for in person so that I could make out how they carry themselves and how they interact with their employers.

"My employer might be okay with that. I will have to step out of this room to make a few calls." The leader of the group said to me as he started to walk away after he turned around with his back now to me.

After that, the other men split into two groups and allowed him to pass them. As soon as he walked past them, they resealed the gap and stood in my way as if what he was going to say was not for me to hear.

It only took him a few minutes to come back, and he started to speak as soon as he came back.

"I am here to tell you that my employer has chosen to accept the terms that you have set up because for some reason he says he sees something in you". The leader said as he started to walk towards the door of the lecture hall.

I truly wondered if I had made the right choice in agreeing to meet him, but somehow, I knew that this choice would have some kind of everlasting effect on my entire life as a member of The Terran Collective.

I got into the backseat of the black car that was outside of the lecture building since I knew it was the only way that I would be able to meet up with this mysterious employer that wants to hire me to go onto an expedition that would prove my theories.

The car went into a different section of the city where those were clearly members of a high-ranking caste.

The sky began to clear and I could see the stars of the night sky shine above me as I stepped out of the car and saw that I was now in a different section of the city than I had ever been before.

This section was full of fancy waterfalls along the streets. There were also some ai bots that seemed to look almost entirely human, and if I was not an intelligent Terran, I would not be able to notice that they were not human.

Right in front of me, I saw a massive three-story mansion that was made from old style bricks. The front yard had an active sprinkle system that kept the grass continuously wet. In the center column of the yard, there was a pathway of marble stones. In the dead center, there was a marble fountain that was a statue of a female angel that had a pair of wings wrapped around it with both of its hands stretched out. From the hands, water spit out and fell into a pair of iron bowls that were on the ground below.

I next saw a female robot that was wearing the outfit of a maid.

"Hello and welcome to my master's home. I will guide you to the location where he has been staying for some time." She said to me as she stated to walk towards me.

This robot was short in stature with short, straight black hair that did not go past her shoulders. The artificial skin made her spear Asian at first glance.

The fact that this employer lived in a place that was as nice as this and that he had a robot for his maid told me that whoever this was, they were clearly loaded. This meant that they could very easily finance an expedition to prove my theory.

I walked behind the maid as she turned around and started to head towards the mansion of her master. I quickened my pace since I did not want to get lost in this massive building.

As I walked into the building, I was guided to an elevator that was only about ten feet from the entrance.

On the inside of the elevator, the maid placed her right hand on a hand scanner that was against the right wall of the elevator. Then it started to move, but instead of going up to a higher floor, it was rushing down.

Then the elevator opened, and I was shocked at the sight of what was now in front of me.

I was able to tell that I was no longer in what looked like a mansion. I was now in a very advanced medical facility. This room that I had just walked into was very dark with only one pair of green lights that were lighting up a glass tank that contained a clear blue liquid that had small white flakes inside of it.

On the inside of it, I saw a naked male Terran that was of medium height and was entirely bald. He had a set of thin tubes running from above him and into the veins of his neck, arms, and legs. This elderly man was clearly clinging to his life as if he were on the verge of death.

"I have brought him here as you requested, master". The robot maid said to the man that was floating in the liquid.

"Now that you have seen the face of the man who wants to pay for an expedition to prove your theory." The elderly man said to me as I walked up to the tank.

"I can at least tell you, sir, that I was not prepared for this. When I was thinking of the kind of person who would hire me and help me prove my theories, I thought that it would have been some fat senator who wanted to boost his reputation." I said to him as I looked into his eyes, showing an expression of surprise for him to clearly see.

"Most people do not expect what they see when it comes to me." He said in response to what I said.

"Then why did you want to support my theory? If I do not hear a good enough answer, I will leave and act as though we have never met."

"If you can not tell, I am dying. I have a disease in my DNA that the best Terran scientists can not even identify exactly how I got it. This disease attacks my white blood cells, which makes it where I can not survive out of this glass container any longer. The reason why I am going to be funding an expedition that will prove your theory is because I want to be able to transfer my mind into one of their robotic bodies that are still functioning."

After he spoke, I began to think about what I wanted to do for the next few minutes. I understand that he may be the only person who would ever help me prove my theory. Despite his selfish intentions so after thinking about it for a bit, I chose to accept his offer. I did this because I thought that the possible rewards were too great to be ignored.

"I will accept the terms of service with you since I most likely I will not ever get another chance like this in my lifetime ever again." I said to him as I turned around.

"Since you have agreed to the contract that my master has offered you, then please sign here and follow me to the private shuttle that will be taking you out of here."

The female robot maid handed me a black data pad. It had a typed contract on the screen. I agreed to it without a second thought because my urge to prove my theory was stronger than any need to look over all the fine details of the contract.

As soon as I handed her the contract after signing it, I felt as though I had either sold my soul to a devil or that I am now working with a crazy individual.

"Now that all of the formalities are out of the way, I will take you to the t=ship that will be taking you to the location where we have an active dig going on." The female robot said to me as she started to walk into the elevator.

I followed her inside of the elevator, and she used her hand again to cause the elevator to go down instead of up.

Then, as the door opened, I made my way into the area that was in front of me. It was a hanger with a massive ship that was shaped into the shape of a triangle and shined silver.

"What in the world is that!?" I asked her out of shock as I looked at what was in front of me.

"This is a ship that we reverse engineered from the ships we had salvaged from a battle six years ago between us and the cyborgs. We call it The Tacitus" the female robot said to me as we began to walk towards it.

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