[Commander, we have an incoming message from the Vampire ship.] The communications officer on duty informed Max seconds later.

[I will take it here.] Max replied, then opened the link as a video chat, which would project holograms of Max and everyone else at his table to the person that had contacted them from the Vampire's vessel.

"Commander Keres Max, I must say, your new home nearly gave my crew a heart attack. I am assuming that IS your new vessel?" The Vampire asked as soon as the link opened.

"Indeed it is. Would you like to come aboard Terminus and have a chat? I have been on the far side of the Galaxy for a while now, and I haven't had a chance to catch up with the ongoing situation here and within the Federation since the end of the Civil War." Max replied.

"Certainly. We have a lot to talk about and a revelation that I think you will be very interested in, as well as your Alliance Envoy associates. We have been waiting for a response from the Reaver Council on this matter, but they have deemed it of low importance with everything else going on." The Vampire informed him.

"I will accept your shuttle at bay C17. Forgive me if I don't greet you in person, I have a lot going on at the moment, and the recruitment teams are headed to the planet to do the final round of interviews." Max agreed and sent through the clearance codes for the Vampire vessel to dock with them.

"Oh, this should be good. I think that the Vampires have finally realized it now that they managed to purchase a replicator from the Reavers." The Valkia Envoy declared eagerly while rubbing his hands on his wings in anticipation.

"Can I know in advance, or are you making it a surprise?" Max asked.

"I love surprises. They will be here in only a few minutes, so it won't be long either way, but if you can bring them to us, it would be amazing to see the look on everyone's face when they find out." The Valkia suggested.

Max sent a message for the escort to bring the Vampires to the coffee shop since he was already here, and there was lots of room to hold a meeting while everyone was focused on the recruitment and the appearance of the new ship.

The response of the Envoys hadn't been what he expected, and he still hadn't told them about the capabilities of the ship, but given the Giant's response, it might be better not to spring that on him today.historical

"Greetings, Commander. I am Captain Nostra of the Vampire fleet." The leader of the Vampire fleet introduced himself, while Max stood up to greet him.

"It is a pleasure to meet you. I believe that I have met one of your relatives before, piloting a cargo vessel." Max replied.

"Ah, yes, it is a common issue. The Nostra family has been a space-faring family, much like your Reaver Families, for many millennia, so a great number of Vampire Captains share the same name." The pale man chuckled while his red eyes glinted in amusement.

"Come and sit. The Envoys are here to observe our recruitment effort, so you can treat them as bystanders in our meeting. Their rules prevent them from sharing any confidential information that you might have with me." Max explained.

"Then I will get right to it. We recently acquired a replicator from your people, and while the legalities of the purchase might be questionable, we learned something very interesting. You see, the first thing that we used it for was to produce one of the new generation medical tools that are programmed in so that we could cure an outbreak of a new virus.

But the tool had some very interesting things to say once it scanned our citizens. It insists that Vampires are, in fact, genetically modified humans with a rare genetic condition that makes us much more physically powerful, as well as sensitive to sunlight and anemic.

To say that my superiors were offended by the suggestion that it could cure Vampirism was putting it mildly, but it did manage to cure the disease that we were suffering from, and experiments were run that helped with the anemia, reducing our need for additional iron and mineral intake. I feel incredible in the morning, by the way, now that I don't wake up woozy and thirsty.

But with that in mind, I would like you to read this proposal from the Vampire Council."

The speech was a bit long-winded, but it gave Max a very good idea of what was coming next, and the Valkia Envoy was staring intently at his face, waiting for the moment when it sunk in that the Vampires were a Demihuman species like the Canis.

Max considered playing it up, but as a mind reader, he had learned long ago not to respond to emotional input, or he would look like a crazy person all the time, so the Envoy's anticipation slowly turned to mild disappointment as Max's facial expression barely changed.

The Barista was much more entertaining. The revelation that Vampires were descended from humans was a big shock to basically everyone since the genetic data that they had in the past suggested that they were entirely unrelated species.

Max looked through the data and found exactly what the Vampire was talking about. Though their entire genome was different, it was deliberately different. The more advanced medical tools had found the lingering traces of modifications that could still be seen in the descendants, and when the identified changes were isolated, it became clear that reverting them would indeed lead to either a human or a very similar species.

It wasn't exactly an incontrovertible fact, but it was certainly a strong possibility, given the evidence that had been presented.

After moving on from the evidence, Max got to the proposal. The Vampire Council was asking that the Reavers consider the genetic data presented and accept it as proof that the Vampires were a human-descended species, which meant that they would be included in agreements made on behalf of humanity, such as the agreements with the Alliance, which governed interactions between the groups.

"This might be beyond our medical technology, but thankfully we have the Envoys here. I will ask you four. Make that three. Since the Dryad has disappeared again, can you scan the Vampires and determine if they were indeed descended from humans? If they were, to your standard of evidence, then I can present this to the Reaver Council and have it approved very quickly." Max asked.

"Certainly. I can have my assistant bring a genetic sequence scanner in a few minutes, and we will verify the data presented against the Vampires present. From what I can see, they do look quite similar, and their blood vessel structure appears to be very similar to humans, sharing the same arterial pattern, so they might have a case." The Valkia agreed with a smirk.

Max was almost certain that they had done the scans and determined the truth of this matter years ago when the Vampires showed up with the Federation to petition for a trade deal with the Alliance, but they had been holding back on it until the Vampires showed up and reminded him of it.