They were out mapping the milky way. It was probably going to take the next thousand years to put any sort of dent in discovery for their own galaxy, but the GA already had a handle on andromeda, so Admiral Vir felt it was his duty to get a head start on the milky way.

Leaving a few of his other ships to get a start on the Orion arm of the milky way, he determined to start with Perseus staring from the outside and working in. Using advanced GA technology, they took multiple scans of the proceeding star field, marking planetary systems where earth-sized rocky planets are located in the Goldilocks zone.

He wouldn't have told this to anyone else, but he may or may not have manually marked locations that he wanted to visit because they looked cool. You know like planets whose carbon content suggested that it might rain diamonds, or an icey eyeball planet tidally locked with its star creating a circle of water where ice dominated everything else.

Unfortunately, no exotic lifeforms, but that was alright he supposed, no big deal.

He had seen enough aliens to technically last a lifetime, and while he would never argue with more, he definitely could not complain.

So he happily directed them from one strange new world to the next, hoping beyond hope that they would find something interesting and strange to explore or study, well more explore and less study considering he wasn't exactly the 'science' type'.

He was looking for something that the scientists would yell at him for if he tried t touch.

He sighed at the thought, good times.

"Airlock 2 deck 7 engaged."

He reached up to the side of his helmet and pressed inward, "Copy." before dropping his hand back onto his lap where he sat atop the space cycle.

His feet flexed lightly against the cycle pedals as the door opened, kept in place by the pull of strong magnets against his boots.

A line of several other space cycles followed him outside, three or four of them curving around the side of the ship to take a look at an impact site along her upper starboard side.

There had been a collision alarm of course, but none of the systems seemed to be damaged, so this check was nothing more than a precaution.

While they were working on the ship, Admiral Vir had grabbed a group of other scientist to go with him in order to explore a large spiky ball of ice they had discovered floating about in the middle of space. It was a rather large ball of ice, maybe the size of a small moon, though it's gravity was hardly strong enough to interfere with the cycles.

People back at the UNSC argued that position as Rear Admiral meant having a desk job, but he was determined not to be benched, besides, it was his ship and he could do what he wanted within reason. Furthermore, no one else on his improvised 'jedi council seemed to mind what he did as long as he ran it by them first.

No one wanted to take planetary exploration away from him, and he was just fine not to point it out.

All around them the vastness of space was dark accept for the distant winking of lights plastered against the firmament. If he looked up, he saw stars, and if he looked down, he saw stars.

No matter how many times he flew in space that sensation never went away, and he found himself shaking of a sudden sense of vertigo as he maneuvered his cycle towards the edge of the glassy ice surface. A group of scientists clustered together, taking samples of the ice and speaking excitedly to one another as he floated forward into an icy tunnel opening.

Let them geek out about dirt and ice, he was going to go exploring.

Using a mapping system on his suit, he allowed the object to track where he was and how far he had gone as he floated some ways into the darkness.

The single beam of his forward headlight rolled over the walls and floor, casting a dim illumination back at him as he rode inward. It seemed to him, strangely that the ice glowed green and blue as he passed.

For a moment he imagined that he could hear the creaking of the ice and the echo of his engines in the darkness, but knew that fantasy wasn't the case considering there was no room for noise in a vacuum

Everything outside would be completely silent.

He angled his cycle up as he came into a large cavern and picked one of the outgoing tunnels to explore. The beam of his light rolled and slithered over exposed ice giving him an eerie feeling, like walking into an ancient cathedral or long abandoned cave.

He was just raising into the next tunnel when there was a sudden violent jerking motion to one side, and the magnets that held his boots to the cycle disengaged. He found himself flipping end over end, and then the lights went out.

***

He sat politely in the alien ship hands folded neatly in his lap.

He glanced down at his watch, and then looked back up at the surrounding scene. He was in a large cavernous room, whose walls seemed to be more organic than they were metallic. Great pillars of dense purple ferry material rose into the air giving the alien ship it's chape.

Admiral Vir checked his watch again. He had about an hour until someone noticed that he was missing.

That was fine.

Just stay calm.

All of this was honestly par for the course with him, and it wouldn't due to be rude to his hosts.

There was a slight echoing off to his right, and he turned to watch as a group of those strange creatures floated in. He wasn't entirely sure how they floated, as there was no inflatable sack that he could see, like the Vrul. In fact he would have described them almost like large tadpoles. They were blue/black/purple in color with a large, round bulbous head and a single great orange/yellow eye in the middle. This upper half allowed the creature to float, and below it, a short, stumpy tadpole-like tail wiggled and waved in the air to propel them forward.

If they had been any smaller he might have considered them cute, but at almost five feet tall, and floating two feet off the ground, they were a strange and unnerving site.

Little trains of bioluminescent dots in green and orange ran up their sides, giving them a strange, almost electronic quality, though they were clearly organic as well.

The group of them floated over, gathering around him like an excited group of children.

He waved.

"Hello, um, just thought I should let you know. I am totally cool with this, and all, but I am due back on my ship in an hour, so..."

The group of them moved closer, one of them gently grabbed him by the hand and hauled him to his feet using its tail as a prehensile arm.

He took to his feet and followed after them

They seemed polite enough, so why not. It was no skin off his nose.

Unless they did, in fact, want the skin off his nose in which case, he was going to have to protest just a little bit.

He walked with them into the next room where they let him go before beginning to prod at the outside of his suit.

He held up a hand, "Hold on, just give me a second."

He glanced down at his atmospheric reading, to find that, while oxygen content was higher than normal, it was still breathable.

"You'll want me to take off my suit first. You know, make it to the squishy center."

He reached up, popping off his helmet with a hiss and gently setting it down on the floor. He was hit with a sudden wave of smell, that reminded him of burnt rubber and.... Roses?

The group of creatures pulled back slightly as if they were surprised.

He went about removing the rest of his suit before he was left standing in astronaut footie pajamas, his hood pulled back from his hair.

"Better?"

The group of them clustered in a bit further.

One of them lifted its tail to prod at him, but paused, its great orange red eye seeming to turn, looking at him.

Wawas it hesitating?

How very polite..

He waved a hand, "Go on, I don't mind. This isn't my first rodeo you know."

The creature tentatively reached forward to prod at his hand.

He raised it to give the creature a better look articulating his fingers and wrists so the creature could see his full range of motion, "See, the fingers move because of the tendons right here, and those tendons are connected down here on my forearm."

He knew they didn't understand him, but it was sort of a coping mechanism to keep him relaxed.

This was sort of a routine for him, and it wouldn't due to go freaking out in front of his new friends.

He let them feel his hands flexing his fingers so they could get a good look at the tendons.

Another one of the creatures approached him, this time holding some strange device in its tail.

He sat down hand still held up for the others to examine.

The thing with the strange device floated over, setting the thing down to the side to prod at his hair.

He shivered as its muscular tail rolled over his scalp, like a snake slithering through his hair.

"Here friend, if you want to do some tests.' he reached up, and yanked out a couple strands of hair, holding them up to the light so the alien creatures could see.

They floated backward and then the one rooting around in his hair reached over for its device, using it to collect the hairs he offered to them.

He patted one of the creatures on its side, "Very polite you all are."

He held out his arm, rolling up his sleeve, "here you go, some skin scrapings or a blood sample or something. I can't exactly tell you how to find it, but I'll let you have it."

They glanced between each other, and one of them gently took his hand while another ran something along his arm. He could feel metal scraping over his skin, and when the creature withdrew, it left a raised red line in its wake.

It pulled back a little glancing at him in what seemed to be concern.

He waved a hand, "No harm done, it will go away in a few minutes. Look"

He dragged his fingernail down the other side of his arm to show them that they hadn't hurt him, and that seemed to relax them as they continued on with their examination.

He remained politely seated as they did their testing running their tendrils over his back while one or two of them played with the rotation of his ankle,

"So you see that's how we started dating, and I know, I know some people think it's weird, but the more and more it goes on, the more it just seems.... right , you know." he raised his arm rotating his shoulder so they could get a good look at the articulation, "The problem now is telling my family. I mean, I think they totally suspect you see, but I don't know how well they will take it when I ACTUALLY confirm their suspicions. Like I mean I think my brothers will be cool about it, especially Thomas and Daviid, but I don't know about my parents."
One of the aliens approached with a strange strip, holding it up to about face level, gently prodding at his cheek.

"Oh is this the saliva swab part? here , let me get that." He reached up and took the strip from the alien passing it into his mouth to allow it to soak up some saliva before handing it back. The creatures seemed pleased and floated away.

"All in all though, I think life has really been going well for me so far. I mean I haven't been kidnapped in a while." He paused, "Well aside from today, and I'm pretty sure I am in a very good place mentally."

They approached again with another machine, this time holding a cold, round metal piece up to his throat as he talked.

It almost seemed as if they were listening.

He took a few deep breaths for them, before beginning again, "Plus I have an entire Armada of ships, did I mention that. Well, technically they aren't MINE per se, but I definitely consider them to be mine. The GA even gives me command of their fleet when in times of war, so pretty awesome I think. Not that I have ever gotten to command them all at once, and i sort of don't want to."

He reached up and took gentle hold of their device as they tried to pull away, "No, you are going to want to hear this."

He unzipped the front of his astronaut suit pulling his arms out and letting the upper half dangle around his waist as he pressed the cold little circle to his chest just above the heart.

They took turns listening, seeming very interested.

He then held the thing up to the side of his neck again, so they could hear the same sound in another part of his body.

The link seemed to excite them, "Yeah, gotta carry oxygen to my dumbass brain somehow." He said leaning back and moving the device to over his stomach, "Get a load of this."

He smirked a bit as his stomach made a prolonged grumbling noise, and the group of aliens looked around at each other in some concern. He sat up and patted his stomach, threading his arms back through the sleeves and zipping himself back into the suit, "Yeah, people think it's weird too, don't worry."

They wandered off after a second, and returned with a large floating machine in the shape of a circle.

The implant on his left wrist went off, and he looked down to see that it was detecting x-ray pulses. Not enough to be an issue, but enough to be detectable.

"Oh x-ray for my skeleton and insides or whatever." He stood and held his arms out to his sides for them palms facing forward like all humans stood in medical textbooks, "Light me up."

There was a pulse of x-ray energy that spiked in his implant for a moment before receding.

They wriggled excitedly pointing out something to each other.

He wandered around to see what they were looking at and found that he was right. His skeleton stood there in full glory, though his leg and metal eye were causing some distortion.

"Hmm gotta get you a better picture, hold on."

He wandered over to the bench, and undid to the footie part of his right leg pulling it up to mid thigh before detaching the prosthetic.

That shocked them a big

He had to hold up a hand to calm them down as he set it off to the side.

"Hold on, its alright, I have a real one right here." he undid the pant leg of his left foot so they could see properly, and they moved forward in fascination, one of them prodding at his prosthetic.

He then flipped up his eyepatch before turning away, "You aren't going to want to watch this."

WIth a quick movement, he popped out the prosthetic eye and covered the socket with his eyepatch turning around and holding up the eye to show them, "here you go, kind of crazy isnt it."

The one that had been prodding at his leg moved over to take a look at the eye, seeming greatly fascinated.

He motioned the x-ray guys over, setting his eye down and hopping up to one foot motioning them to try it again. Hesitantly they seemed to understand and took another snapshot. This time the image was much better, and they seemed very pleased as he returned, popping his eye back in and socketing the leg back on.

"Not to shabby huh?"

They did a few more noninvasive scans as he continued to make smalltalk, occasionally patting the strange alien on its side. Eventually they began to mimic the movement, patting him on the head or on the shoulder when he was doing something they wanted. He enjoyed having the encouragement.

At one point he was sitting in the middle of a group of about ten of them as they simultaneously prodded, articulated and examined different body parts. The same one from earlier was still playing with his prosthetic, which was sort of adorable to watch.

At one point, his implants began to buzz, and he held up a finger to his new friends, "Hold on, I have to take this." He reached up, pressing the side of his neck to answer the call."

"Admiral Vir speaking."

"Admiral, thank goodness, where are you. We found your cycle but, not you.... ar e you alright!" It was simon speaking

He lifted up his foot so one of the creatures could bend his knee, "Oh yeah, I'm perfectly fine, but making new friends."

Simon seemed annoyed, "Admiral, you can't just go missing like that. It is very irresponsible, and overly juvenile."

He stood and twisted around so they could get a better look at the flexibility of his spine, "Well, Actually Simon, I was given an invitation I could not refuse."

"Admiral this isnt funny."

He sighed, "Simon, I'm not kidding. I am on an alien ship being propped right now as we speak. I repeat this is not a joke."

The angry growl from the other end of th line told him that she did not believe him.

"Hold on, let me send you a pic."

He held out his hand before him, rotating the camera around so it faced him, "Everybody say Admiral Vir isn't a lying bastard!"

There was a minute flash, and then he sent the file.

There was silence on the other end of the line before, "No Fucking way."

"Yes, anyway, just give me a few minutes and I will be right out."

He cut off the channel and stood patting the creatures on the arms as he walked over and began pulling his suit back on, starting with the boots and working up. They watched for a few minutes until one of them wandered over and began handing him pieces.

He smiled, "So polite. Anyway, I have to go."

He secured the chest piece and held the helmet under his arm, "Which was is out?"

One of them grabbed him by the hand and gently lead him out of the room and back the way they had come.

Once they reached, what he assumed to be the docking bay, one of them reached down, grabbed his helmet and gently slid it over his head, locking it into place. Then it patted him on the helmet. He returned the gesture

"SO nice, now, there is something I should give to you." he reached into an router containment pouch on his suit, and withdrew a data stick gently passing it to the next alien over ,'On there you will find the coordinates of one of the GA offices and a communications line to talk with them. I would suggest making contact. The GA would love to have you aboard, and I would be more than pleased to see you again."

The Alien wrapped its tail around the stick and blinked long and slow at him. He patted it one more time before motioning to the door.

The group of aliens slowly filtered from the room, and there was a sharp hiss as the airlock opened, and everything went silent.

Jauntily, he leaped from the opening, turning on his head lamp as he went sailing a good hundred yars into the dark until the minute gravity pulled him down to the icy surface.

He hoped his way through the tunnels until he caught another signal.

"Omen, this is Admiral Vir, sending my location now."

He didnt have to wait long until a rushed group of concerned marines descended on him, dragging him onto the back of a cycle before flying him out and back towards the omen

Returned nice and cozy in the ship, he pulled off his helmet and looked over at Ramirez, "What do you think, Cyclopes or Mikes."

Ramirez tilted his head, "Mikes?"

"Yeah Like that little one eyed monster Mike Wizowski from Monsters Inc, you know since these guys only have one eye."

Ramirez stared at him blankly and he nodded to himself, "Mikes it is then."

Ramirez just shook his head and sighed, "You seem relatively calm for a guy who just got kidnapped for like the twentieth time."

"I wouldn't say kidnapped actually, more like cordially invited. Kidnapping implies they weren't going to let me go. Actually very good hosts, and hopefully, if we are lucky one day they will join the GA

Ramirez just sighed and shook his head again, "Nothing surprises me anymore."

"Oh I'm sure you'll be eating those words next week.

He thought about it for a moment and then shrugged with grudging acknowledgement. "You're probably right."