Each species is different.... Thousands upon millions of minds making up the soul of the galaxy, each species more divergent than the other, yet somehow so similar, like looking at a fractured image through a prism, so strange. Through all my years traveling across galaxies, links on a chain around the neck of the universe, I have found one thing that links them all...... religion.

Not, perhaps, in the way that you are assuming, for you see each species is so different that to compare their belief systems would be like comparing a grain of sand to a beating heart. You see perhaps a better word would be belief. The Rudi believe in law, law is their religion bureaucracy is their god, and contracts their bible in cannon. The Vrul on the other hand have their science, they have fact and logic and truth sometimes completely at odds with the bureaucratic system of the Rundi. Then there are the Tesraki with their economics; god being compared to the all mighty dollar, saints replaced by those with good business sense.

Of course there are other examples, probably more familiar to you, The Drev and their spiritual naturalistic religion held up by the fiery warlike spirits of the volcanic mountains. Strange that humans can be altogether so similar and so different. Each species is known to have one religion, one belief system that defines them whether it be logic or science, but man, he can find or make his gods. Like the Rundi his religion may be law, or perhaps he subscribes to science, the knowledge of things that are only seen, but perhaps he looks to something he cannot see, but feels on the inside. Man does not ask your permission to believe, does not follow his brethren. For thousands of years man has evolved changed where the other species have not.

Suppose it makes sense that a human would be the one to bring out change in the rest of the universe weather knowingly or not.

***

Commander Vir stood at the helm of his ship staring out into the vast darkness of space, a darkness split only by the serene polished globe of the Tvek home world. Despite the quiet serenity the glassy planet seemed to portray, something wasn't quite right. He had received a transmission from the chairwoman of the galactic assembly not days ago about strange behavior being exhibited by the Tvek.

They had stopped answering calls from their galactic ambassador, and when they did, they spoke nonsense. Something about preparing for something important being too busy, needing to please someone. Who that someone could be, they had no real idea. As un-advanced as the Tvek were, the galactic assembly worried that some outside influence was pushing them into their strange ways. As far as they knew this sort of behavior wasn't particularly normal for the Tvek species.

Commander Vir turned to the intercom and called down to the docking bay where three teams of marines had been ordered to ready themselves under the watchful eye of Sunny. He planned to set out in three strategic locations across the city close enough to meet up but far enough not to be caught in the same trap if something had been laid out for them.

He handed off the bridge to his second in command and made his way down to the docking bay, there was no telling what they were going to find, and Commander Vir had a strange feeling that whatever it was wasn't going to be good.

And if there was anything he had learned, from other aliens about humans, ironically, human instincts were some of the best in the business.

***

They arrived planeside just as the star was cresting over the horizon, delicate rays of white light rolled across the glassy stone and out onto the strange rose-tinted trees. The downy fluff that had lingered in the air the last time he was here, was conspicuously missing, likely out of season for this type of plant. On first inspection, there didn't seem to be anything amiss with the not-so-distant city.

Though the Tvek weren't particularly advanced, and nor were they exactly topping the intelligence scale, they were known to be industrious craftsmen. Art and beauty lay at the center of their planetary culture with their sweeping buildings and winding marble pathways laced with delicate veins of blue.

One of the marines crouched close to the ground flicking down a set of expensive looking goggles as he stared towards the city. Commander Vir knelt next to him, "See anything?"

The marine frowned, "No organic heat signatures, sir."

"None at all?"

The marine shook his head and flipped up his goggles adjusting his weapon against the crook of his shoulder.

Commander Vir whistled once, and the group of marines fell quickly into formation, a wide wedge shape with one man on point. The commander himself fell to the rear center of the formation where Sunny waited.

With an agile leap, he pulled himself onto the buddy pegs and primed the machines gun to fire. Sunny tilted her head back to look at him, "See anything?"

Commander Vir shook his head, "No organic heat signatures, and for an entire city, I find that more than a little worrisome." He patted her on the shoulder as the marines began to move forward, and she followed after them, her footsteps surprisingly light over the stony terrain. He kept one hand on the machine gun eyes sweeping across the landscape as he reached up for the com on the side of his helmet.

"Bravo, Charlie, status?"

There was a moment of silence before, "Bravo, all quiet here, sir thought we aren't detecting any organic heat signatures."

"Same here, how about Charlie..... Charlie come in..... Charlie."

"Here sir, here..... But...."

"But what?" Commander Vir demanded. They were just beginning to head down into the city, cutting at a diagonal down the ridge. Sunny jolted and rocked dangerously a few times as loose stone rolled under her feet. Vir did his best to keep balance on her back as she moved.

There was silence over the other side of the line for a long moment, and then, "You just have to come see it sir, you're not gonna believe it."

***

There was complete silence, awed silence, shocked silence as the three teams of marines stared, looked away and then stared again sure there eyes were deceiving them, but no, it was still there, "Commander, is that?"

"It can't be."

"I think it is?"

Commander Vir stood at the center of the city, a place he had been only twice before, the first time when coordinating the stabilization of the planet's core, and the second time when returning to invite the Tvek into the galactic assembly. He could still see it, the scar that the machine had left on the landscape as the core was stabilized. And right on top of that spot, on the scar, there it was.

It was at least ten feet tall made from, what appeared to be, polished white marble set with jade and other precious stones, "No..... I it has to be something else." He muttered dropping down from Sunny's back to examine the statue. The Drev followed close behind.

"I don't think so Commander. That is definitely you."

Commander Vir tilted his head upwards from the base of the statue confronted with a surprisingly accurate likeness of his own face. Though it was made of stone, It still gave the impression of short spiky hair. A single eye socket was set with Jade stone while the other was covered, as it would have been, with an eyepatch. From the head, the stone flowed downwards into his shoulders, chest, and clothing setting him in a particularly heroic position atop the base stone. The mechanical features of his leg were rendered in loving detail down to every last screw and pin that could be seen from under his clothing. The way the cloth of the folds fell over his body was such that, he almost expected the statue to step forward and begin speaking. The face was of an expression he was sure he had never made before.

It was the benevolent, and cold distance of an uncaring god or angel, warlike, but beautiful.

"The actual hell?" One of the marines muttered.

At the base of the statue one of the marines had knelt rubbing her hand across the stone, "it has an inscription..... Anyone here speak Tveki?"

From the back of the group one of the marines raised a hand. The group turned to look at him with slight surprise, "Ramirez, since when?"

The man shrugged and moved forward with a shrug and a slight blush, "It's not a hard language to learn, though I only have a working understanding. I can't speak it, but I can read it." The other marines stepped out of the way as he knelt to cast his eyes over the flowing script.

Commander Vir stood simply staring at the statue, and the surrounding stone. He hadn't noticed this before, but now he could see that the surrounding marble was absolutely piled with objects..... what he would have guessed were offerings if he didn't know better. Leaning down, he reached out to pick one up, turning the small dog statue over and over in his hands. It was Waffles for sure, but not in the way he knew her, whoever this artist was, they had chosen to make her fiercer than he would have assumed. There were other little human statues too thrown in with the occasional Drev, one of Sunny made out of polished blue stone. Among the statues he could see other "offerings" small strips of cloth, bowls of dried food and so on.

"What the actual hell." The earlier marine muttered again.

"For the savior from the sky may his glory call out through the ages."

"What?"

"What?"

"Well I mean they aren't wrong." He gave a sheepish grin as the group of marines turned to look at him eyebrows raised more than a little unconvinced. He waved a hand, "Just kidding.... Despite how weird, or cool, or sort of disturbing this is, we should probably go back to our earlier mission, to figure out where these guys went..... and if THIS is related."

"Would his highness like us to split up?"

"Shut your trap Ramirez, and I want us to spread out, keep your neighbors in line of sight at all time, not to close but not too far away, move out!"

He remounted the machine gun mount, suffering through Sunny's sarcastic sidelong glances. How the hell she managed to do that when her face was practically a beak he would never know. But the more pressing concern came from the immediate issue of the missing Tvek, and the supposed statue. He supposed he could have understood if this was about him saving their planet, not that it had been him alone. It had taken the entire crew working in tandem to do that, he had just supervised, but there was evidence of.... Worship..... paying homage.

No, all of it just sounded too weird, there had to be some better explanation.

"Commander I have noises maybe 50 yards southeast of my position coming from inside one of the buildings."

"Alpha team move up! Bravo, Charlie, make a perimeter." He ordered over the com gently adjusting the muzzle of the machine gun to a more ready position. Sunny turned with the order and began moving into position. They weren't too far off when he could begin hearing the noises. It was strange, almost rhythmic but.... Not quite. Almost like when a large crowd starts clapping in unison and as they clap faster and faster and faster the beat suddenly fractures into a hundred clapping hands unable to keep time with each other.

Two Charlie team Marines were at the entrance to the building stacked up on the door which was just barely tall enough to comfortably fit a person of around five feet tall. For this reason the marines were crouched awkwardly, not as far down as they could, but not comfortably upright either. Commander Vir patted Sunny on the back, "Sorry Sunny, there's no way in hell we are fitting you through that door." She sighed, but let him down falling back to join the marines as he moved forward towards the door. Alpha team moved up behind him, and he stacked up on the back of the group.

He patted the marine in front of him on the shoulder and the gesture moved its way up the chain. The marine on the far left slowly reached out to open the door from which noise began to swell upwards and outwards, still almost rhythmic, but not quite there yet, just a cacophony of sound.

Slowly, one by one, the marines began to file into the hallway crouching low against the short ceiling clutching their weapons at the low ready. Commander Vir moved in second to last unable to see the hallway ahead, but he could hear the sounds swelling upwards like the room ahead was large and spacious. The marines were almost silent against the stone floor, but still he could hear the voice.

"Holly shit...." The voice trailed off, and the line of marines stopped moving. The muttering began from the back forward.

"What."

"What's going on?"

"Why aren't we moving?"

Commander Vir found himself stuck in a cramped dark tunnel pressed between two hunched marines. He was jostled from back to front before the line began moving again, and the group of them spilled out onto a catwalk overlooking a large room. It would have been a little presumptuous to call it a chapel, but that is the distance feeling he got from looking. The room was at least three stories high, and as wide as a concert hall. Thousands of Tveki citizens stood at the bottom in loose rows, and at the very pinnacle of the room, carved into the rock was a massive effigy of his ship stretching up towards the ceiling. The noise he had heard from earlier turn out to be the Tveki. Looking down on them it seemed as if they were all trying to sing, and not only that but the tiny grey creatures had..... done something to themselves.

Where there skin would have been grey, they had applied a confusing pallet of creams and browns, where they wouldn't have worn clothing before, they were now wearing strangely crafted robes in the crude imitation of pants and shirts. Atop their heads they were hats made of woven fibers styled to look like..... hair?

At the front of the room, the leaders of this congregation stood, and even from here he could tell they were much taller under those robes than they were supposed to be, and figured out the issue rather quickly when one of the robed "priests" walked forward down one of the elongated isles causing the bottom of what must have been, stilts, to peep out from under his uniform.

They were a strange and unusual recreation of the human form, warped and unsure. The statues at the front of the chapel mirrored the ones that he had seen given as offerings but much larger. He recognized himself, at the very center atop the highest plinth, behind him and to either side were Sunny and cannon, and to his immediate right and left the other humans that had been present during the meeting.

Turning his head in a wide circle, Commander Vir did his best to take in the entire scene around him noting strange symbols carved into the stone at odd intervals. He saw a caution symbol right next to a bio-hazard symbol and a fire warning placed next to each other like they were intended to indicate some sort of meaning. Under that he recognized a row of familiar Latin letters, but in no particular order, and in no perceivable pattern his brain could detect.

Looking down He watched as the strange little creatures toddled about in accompaniment with the priest, and he realized at that moment that that noise he had been hearing was their attempt to sing. The strange toddling motions in which they walked turned into unnatural jerky bursts making them look more like spiders than it made them look human.

Commander Vir motioned the marines to stay low as they watched on in fascination, and a mountain sense of unease. They were even there for the "sermon that took place during the intervening time between singings.

Praise to the old ones that have lifted us from the eternal darkness, praise to them with their lives so long, praise to the savior of our planet and our progeny. Praise to the gods incarnate and always remember the souls hidden behind their eyes, cosmic beings in pupae form.

Praise brothers and sisters, for we know something no one else knows and will except. We see the humans, the way they have saved us, what they have done for us. We see their power in the way they move and in the way they speak, unruled by their emotions, unchained by our needs. With lives so long may death only pass them once in a great while and may their power protect them from harm. Let their passion and empathy continue to run deep as do their souls, let them lead at the forefront of this great age. Brothers and sisters we have pondered the great texts of their scribes and the scribes of those that came before us, and we see them for what they are. We have seen the souls trapped behind their eyes gods in pupae form.

The crowd chittered and roared in answer. Commander Vir frowned. That last part sounded eerily familiar, and he didn't like where this was going.

Praise be it to the great savior of our planet, whose name shall not be spoken but in greatest reverence, bless the rocks on which his blood was spilled and curse those that showed him harm for it is he that showed us the path to enlightenment, so ancient and wise.

Commander Vir had seen enough, he patted one of the marines on the back, and slowly, together they began moving back through the tunnel listening quietly as the sermon continued onwards, extolling the virtues of humanity, with an undercurrent of personal worship to this 'planetary savior.'

The rest of the marines hardly believed them when they returned, and neither did the GA at first, but upon seeing the images and the recordings, their skepticism was silenced, and their worry rose up. Commander Vir had been right when he recognized some of the propaganda being spouted by the priest. It actually came from the published work of a scientist whose trial Vir had been present for. The scientist had strived to discover the true meaning of humanity, and in so doing killed many people. Doing his journey, he claimed that you could see a human soul through the eyes, and, personally, see the dead soul itself when it retreated from the body.

It was all very troubling seeing that that particular study had been recanted by the Galactic Institute of Academics not only for its poor scientific method, but for its outrageous ethical violations.

Perhaps it hadn't been wise to invite the Tveki into the assembly just yet. If they weren't advanced enough to understand when a study was falsified, how could they be allowed to contribute.... Not only that, but humanity wasn't ready to know about this. If Vir knew anything, he knew the easy pride of his own race and the potential corruptibility of himself as well. They were venturing into dangerous territories and this so called "Cult of Vir" which the marines had jokingly called it, had more sinister undertones than he liked to admit.