"Time" I said.

I was feeling the same fear I felt when Hiraku said it on Hettula. 

Time. 

The last secret of the universe.

The human race (all the races, actually), in his history, pursued many science achievements with real lust, eager to use them to evolve. Science achievements changed our lifes, they changed our way to see the world and they changed our way to make war. 

We know that the world has never been the same since we created our first atomic bomb and milestones like that happened many other times, after that. Spaceships, drifting technology, radiation weapons. Every time something like that happened the equilibrium went broken and people had to die to create a new balance.

There're not many possibility for that to happen now, interaction with Teculpa and Rafkin made quite impossible to obtain something really new, the equilibrium is now so complex that science by itself can't change it.

Except for time-based technology.

All the races think that time travel is impossible, but all the races know that if someone find a way to do it, he will be able to reshape the galaxy as he wants. No more equilibrium. Probably forever.

"Teculpa-Ryon thinks that the marauders use a time-based technology to gain supremacy in fight. Is it true? Your technology seems to be very similar to their"

One of the heereen came so near to the surface that I could see his three rounded eyes very well. His massive body was changing the path of the waves.

"It's time-based technology. Rudimentary. We can locally slow and accelerate time and use it to remodulate the energy of our weapons but that's all"

"So you have more knowledge about time than us. Why are you interested in our talks about it?"

"Because time is"  The speaker didn't translate the last word, giving me just the whistle and strange rumors of heereen's voice. 

"We have no informations about time. Me and prefect Hiraku were just talking about speculations on marauders. What we know is surely less than what you know!"

The black liquid vibrated while the heereen under it debated. My guts told me that they were becoming nervous.

"Teculpa-Origin are our enemy. They came from here. The Teculpa Empire contains answers and we need them. But we can't reach them"

"It could be difficult to find information about that. We are talking about something lost in the past"

"The past is matter of time"

I wasn't sure what heereen were asking. Did they think we can time travel in the past and investigate on their enemy? If that was the meaning of their mission it was a really long shot.

"What can I do about that?"

This time  a tail came out from the water, while one of the heereen was diving to reach the depth of the black sea.

"We will give you back to your ship"

I nearly laughed for the relief "Oh.... thanks... thank you... I'm..."

"But we need you to ask the Teculpa about the Origin family. You have to find their past because their past is wrong"

"Wrong?"

"Can you do that for us?"

"I can... I can try to look in the historian archives of the empire. I have some friends there... they will probably let me do some research"

"We're asking that"

"There's... just one more thing I need to know"

"Ask us"

"Why me? You are not at war with the Teculpa of this quadrant. You saved their outpost. And the Rafkins too made a first contact with you and they're peaceful people. Why should I do that?"

As for every other important thing heereen told me, the answer for that question was just a word.

"Trust"

As a diplomat, trust is the most important thing you can obtain from other people. The value of trust from a new race is priceless. Problem was that heereen told me they trust me, but I wasn't sure I had to trust them. The explanation for their mission was quite a nonsense and I was sure they were hiding something more about their endless war with the Teculpa-Origin as they tried to hide the whole existence of their enemy during the first contact.

I was going to ask more about our relationship to have more elements to evaluate my situation but suddenly a sweet smell of flowers came to my nose and my head started spinning, while my legs became weak and trembling.

"What's happaning?" I asked, just whispering because I had no energy for my voice.

"We're bringing you back to your ship"

"I want to..." I felt asleep.