If you're wondering, Ferrum is literally the Latin name for Iron. Though it's not a bad name for an alien species either!

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"What do you MEAN they've literally got iron in their veins!?"

“Yeah the Ferrum literally have melted iron in their veins... hence why we call them Ferrum” explains Smithsky, another soldier in the Tactical Task Unit.

Mule couldn't believe his ears. It was bad enough they were being deployed to the outskirts of The Milky Way on a classified mission without being briefed properly, now the enemy have fuelled by melted iron? The job was getting more ridiculous every passing second.

“That's right kiddies” confirmed Captain Vontec “You don't want to be in the splash zone when those things start bleeding, it will burn through your body armour and bones”.

While Mule knew the Ferrum were best to be avoided, he just assumed it was down to their bad tempers. Plus their size, intelligence, unwillingness to attempt communication, strength... there's a lot of reasons to avoid them. Usually, humans did and there were no problems.

The Ferrum seemed to hate humans being anywhere near their solar systems so there was a tentative peace as long as humans kept their distance. Ferrum have never spoken with humans except to tell them to leave and chase them away. Speaking to us in perfect English during those times but always swapping back to their own strange clicking afterwards. After multiple missions into their territory and even killing some of them, the Ferrum just chased humans away and didn't bother to pursue us outside of their systems. Most humans hated the idea of bothering them.

Naturally, some big time company thought it was a good idea to mine an asterroid that goes through Ferrum space. And now that mining station hasn't been heard from for over two weeks since it entered a distant Ferrum system on the fringe of their space.

Rumours about a mission to retrieve the crew have been circulating for some time. Missions into Ferrum space are highly classified to ensure the public never hears about them. Considering their squad hadn't even been briefed properly yet, Mule and the rest of the squad assumed that's where they were heading.

As long as you don't bother the Ferrum, they don't bother you. Hopefully, the Ferrum just give back the crew from the mining station and claim the station as their own in compensation.

Kinda short but I love this idea!

___

There's a lot to consider when trying to survive a zombie outbreak. Certain stores are a great idea but everyone else thinks those are a great idea too. Army surplus stores, supermarkets pharmacy's, hardware stores... with all the humans rushing around, those places are more like zombie buffets.

With a stroke of luck, your friends realise you're right. Everyone is scared of course but you send them out on a few missions to find what you need from the less popular places. The local gym that has a cafe in it? Should be uncontested for food! The pet store? Food options, animals to liberate and medication that can be used on humans too! There's even a nearby factory owned by Coca Cola that's sure to be full of some kind of human friendly liquid.

The best one of all? The local Medieval Times!

That's the place you're rushing to. Of course, no one else seems to have though of it and there's not many zombies around this area yet. Rushing inside, you grab enough chainmail, armour and weapons for your group. Even as you make trips back to the car, there's no one around. You have time to get real blades and practice blades, strong gauntlets that zombies can't bite through, shields and other brilliant medival weaponry.

Bullets can run out but a quality sword can be sharped!

Checking the kitchens, there's plenty of food to take. There's even booze! You get what you need and leave the rest for some other hopeful looters. The horses and birds of prey are gone but you don't know how to ride a horse anyway.

Feeling smug, you head back home with your loot. Maybe it's even worth bringing the group to live in the Medival Times castle? You think that sounds like a good idea as you go back to meet your friends with their loot.

Amendment #5327 is going to need A LOT more updates with Dave around!

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The Federation introduced Amendment #5327 around 200 years ago which was simultaneously praised and criticised. Bringing life to planets not yet capable of hosting a thriving ecosystem was, obviously, not ideal. Needing even to add this as a law was originally deemed moronic. The Federation didn't account for Dave.

It's not clear what Dave really is. We know it's a very old alien, and it's claimed to be from many different species, which it obviously isn't. Whatever Dave is, the species seems to be somehow immortal or has an extremely long lifespan. And an unfortunately twisted sense of humour.

Once Amendment #5327 was published, Dave became almost obsessed with breaking it in as many ways as possible.

Dave moved on from lifeless planets and started seeding other celestial objects instead. Covering moons with different lifeforms, Dave filled them with simple life from a range of life-friendly worlds. Plant spores from the earliest land plants to evolve and all kinds of microorganisms. While most life died off, there was some success!

A few moons did seem habitable to certain early life forms, but eventually, The Federation found out and was quite upset for some reason.

Amendment #5327 was updated to include moons.

Since moons were now banned, Dave looked elsewhere. Asteroids were a little unreliable, but a few species still could survive on them. Comets were more complicated, and Dave needed to do more research into them.

While stars should have been impossible to seed with life, Dave found one species that would thrive inside their cores! The unusual little microorganism would consume hydrogen as a food source. This was great news for Dave. Terrible news for the other planets in that solar system, though. Turns out the microorganisms made the star unstable, and well... a planet-wide evacuation was needed.

Amendment #5327 was updated again to include stars and any other celestial object.

Dave is still pretty busy these days.

The Federation forgot to include star clusters, nebulas, quasars, pulsars, black holes and dark matter!

This one kinda ran away from me a little bit! Took an interesting direction but I'm kinda happy with the theme, even if the ending is pretty bitter sweet.

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"Infinite wishes?" The genie laughs out loud one more time "what, you're not smart enough to use 3 wishes?" wiping its tears from laughing you get more and more frustrated every time, as you try to find a loophole it just laugh out loud even more while mocking and gaslighting you just like this.

"I know what you genies are like!" You tell it while trying to stop too much of your frustration from leaking through.

The genie stopped laughing and looked at you, confused. So you continue your rant.

"Always trying to find a wish loophole to screw us, humans, over because you don't actually want to help us! If we wish for unlimited money, you make us turn everything we touch into gold, including our loved ones! If we want a car, you give us some three-wheeled monstrosity that kills us the second we go around one corner!"

Covering your face with your hand for a moment while you calm down. The genie looks at you quietly, then says, "What do you want to wish for?" You sigh and grind your teeth.

Thinking for a moment, you sigh. There's no way to get a good wish without being extremely specific, and you'd need to think about each wish for at least a year to ensure you don't get screwed over. Sure, your family could really use a new house, but why ask when you'll probably be given a tiny house conveniently parked on top of an active volcano or something equally dumb?

"What do you think I should wish for?" You ask the genie out of curiosity.

The genie frowns. It leans over you and stares hard into your eyes. You can feel it searching your soul for an answer. The genie knows that humans often think they need a lot of things, but in reality, they really don't need much. As long as a human is fed, watered, sheltered, warm and loved by someone, that's all they need.

Eventually, the genie speaks, "Your family loves you despite the hard life you all have, you want it to be better, but you have food, water, warmth and shelter. They don't need more, but many humans are greedy and always want more." The genie leans back and continues, "go home, speak with your family and see what they think they need before making a decision".

You agree it sounds like good advice, and the genie has given you a lot to think about. It promises to find you tonight. So, you go back home and ponder the question a bit more.

Walking in through the barely functioning back door, your two youngest children rush up to you, screaming, "DADDY'S HOME!" and notice one of them doesn't even have pants on. The eldest comes rushing in after, holding the pants. The kid is potty trained, not trouser trained. Clearly, he'd been trying to convince his little brother to put his trousers back on again.

You laugh at the sight and sweep them all up in a big hug. They mean everything to you, and since your wife died a few years ago, it's just been the four of you. There's nothing you wouldn't do for them.

Taking the time to speak with your eldest about what he thinks the family needs, you learn that he feels that his brothers need somewhere safe to grow up. The area you live in is getting rougher, and he's worried that gangs might try to drag them into criminal activity as they get older. You talk about the food situation, too, and he admits that he wants to get a part-time job to buy more food each week since he knows you skip meals sometimes to feed the kids.

With a lot on your mind, you talk to the young twins as well. They don't really understand what you're asking about, but they get excited at the prospect of living somewhere with lots of nature and a garden to play in.

Later that night, you tuck the twins into bed and usher your eldest away from the chores he always insists on doing. Sitting down on your old chair, you think about what's best for your family and get lost in thought.

The return of the genie makes you jump.

"What are your three wishes?" asks the genie.

Your previous efforts didn't seem to work well with this genie, so you figure a different approach is needed. Opening thinking out loud, you say, "I need somewhere my family will feel happy, grow up safe, and where there's enough food for all of us... I'm not sure how to turn that into a wish".

The genie nods its' head and tells you, "I can give you what you all need".

____________

You weren't sure what to expect when the genie left. Nothing felt different. Not at first.

A few days later, an old friend from high school sent you an email asking to meet up to discuss something with you. Figuring, why not? You went to meet him. He told you all about this amazing piece of land that he and some others were investing in. It was wild and needed a lot of work. They needed a lot of help to turn it into an amazing self-sufficient community. He quickly squashes your concerns about the kids' education since there was a super good school in the local down, and some of the others had kids attending there already!

Your friend explains that they had been working on it for about a year already, so they had some basic essentials sorted already. He admits that your name popped into his head a few days ago when they were thinking about who else to invite to join their community and help expand it.

When you tell the kids about the opportunity, they're thrilled! It seems to happen so fast. The shitty apartment and car sell within 24 hours, and your friend helps pack up the few items you want to keep. One day you were driving to the place, and the next, you were being hugged by your new extended family and moved into a huge tiny house. Despite the size, you all had the space you needed, and your oldest was promised his own house once he got old enough!

In the end, the genie was right. This was exactly what you and your family needed.

Community from your nice new neighbours and the local town. A safe house to finally call your own. A nice wood-burning stove in your house and community fire pits. Clean drinking water, with hot showers and even a free swimming pool! There was so much food you didn't even know what to do with it all until someone finally taught you how to preserve things for the winter.

​

You just wish your wife was there to see it all.