A knocking woke Noah, “Yah I hear you, I’m coming.” He fell off the couch he had collapsed on. Falling to the ground he realized he was fighting a hangover. Stumbling he arrived at the door pulling it open, a Roschoni was standing there. Her skin was a pale mint, eyes a neon pink, almost black, but still noticeably blue. Yet wat stood out the most was that she was tiny. The average solider was close to seven feet tall, this one couldn't have been over five foot three in her exoskeleton.

  “May I come in?” Her English was good, even if the Roschoni accent reminded Noah of B movie Russians. Stunned for a moment he than moved out of the way. Whatever this strange tiny overlord wanted Noah was either too hung over or not drunk enough.

  Noah was either too hungover or not drunk enough he had to let the small alien in it wasn't like reject the overlords as much as you would rather not so he stepped aside waiving the Roschoni in. “Do you want something to drink?” he said as he shut the door behind her hoping no one jumped to the wrong assumption.

  “No I'll just take a seat over at the table.” The alien said her accent still sounding like a cheesy B Movie. Noah got himself a glass of water, and stumbled over to the table. “Are you Mr. Noah Brannon?” She asked clearly already knowing the answers, Noah decided to play ball.

  “Well I might be don't quite remember.” He said rubbing his head that was genuinely aching.

  “Well you see I'm looking for Noah Branson because they are wanted due to a rather interesting set of circumstances. See, last night they got into an altercation with a pair of our Marines. So where were you last night mister, I presume Noah.” Small alien wasn't selling the illusion that she didn’t know who he was. She knew she had him it seems like she wanted to play the game which Noah appreciated.

  “Well the bar crawl to celebrate the brightest night.” Noah said with a genuinely with genuinely warm smile.

  The Roschoni was taken off guard. “Oh yes that little stunt that you humans call your greatest advancement, it is such a pity nothing happened with it. Did you happen to drink at McCoy's last night?”

  “Yes I think I did maybe I drink quite a bit.” Noah said it all earnestly still haven't decided if he was more hungover or drunk he was glad he wasn't throwing up while sipping on his water.

  The Roschoni smiled coldly sending a shiver down Noah's spine. She pulled a tablet from her backpack presented it to Noah. A video of Noah, in the same clothes he was currently wearing, interceding between a pair of alien Marines and a human girl with attractive red hair was paused on the screen. With a tap of her finger the Roschoni let the video play. Noah quickly got into a fist fight with the Marines. They were in off duty exoskeletons much like the Roschoni sitting in front of him. It meant he quickly beat them and ended up throwing said Marines though McCoy's front window.

  It was fairly damning evidence. Yet the video kept playing. Noah went out side to shout them away. His opponents wanted to continue the fight outside. Thus the fight continued for a bit before both aliens were rendered either unconscious or in so much pain even their exoskeletons couldn't help couldn't help them up against Earth’s gravity.

  From off frame two Roschoni wearing the same exoskeletons appeared to continue the fight. Shortly there was a pile of four seven foot tall green Amazonian women in exoskeletons. Noah then exited stage left, and the video ended.

  The Roschoni smirked, “You see we believe this to be Noah Branson and he did us quite the favor. The Marines were very much out of line and likely to cause another sexual assault case if not another rape case. Which would have undoubtedly drive a wedge between us and our new vassals. Then the two that came later to intervene, perhaps you have heard of them,” she paused deliberately. The shit eating grin on her face a spanned the species barrier, “They have been the one that the newspapers have called the springtime slasher I believe. Mr. Noah Branson managed to do both these acts of Justice seemingly inadvertently and definitely without wishing for the rewards of dealing such justice.”

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  Noah groaned the aliens were noon for their love of justice. It was a rather twisted sense of justice getting into a bar fight seemingly winning and then getting into a street fight and seemingly winning with people who quickly deserved it was a good thing get No Good Deed went on punished therefore he must be punished somehow so we simply gave the alien a look, “I'll pay for McCoy's glass is that what you want?”

  “Well… You did assault for marines now they are marines who did deserve it. Should you have your day in court you will likely see that to come through fruition. However there is something else that I have in mind with you the galactic Council in the community at Large questing an ambassador for Earth. Not just a normal ambassador. No no we have the candidates for the ambassador seats. The galactic community are looking for ah.” The administrator paused. “I believe the best translation into English would be the Ranger.”

  Noah raised his eyebrows ranger was a strange term to translate into that without more contacts couldn't quite decipher. “You want me to become a soldier?” he said fully dropping the charade. The administrator nodded yet it was stiff too formal and lightly creepy, as if her neck wasn't designed to move in quite that way.

  “Yes it's more like I believe the Texas or Arizona variety of Ranger rather than the one in your Militaries should my information be correct.” The administrator said pulling pictures of Chuck Norris from her backpack. “They are an independent portion of the police force, who are also half journalist and half special combat operations. They can make arrests and bring cases against anyone. While there are those with diplomatic immunity there isn’t immunity from the ranger corps. Generally they are self funding after a few years. Have their own ships and while generally not political, entering politics is one of a few ways to loose your special protections under the ranger program. Regardless they are icons and champions of their species on the galactic stage.” The administrator said pulling out a few charts and headlines in the galactic common language.

  Noah rolled his eyes, “Why me I'm a nobody. My biggest achievement is graduating with my machinists and mechanical engineering degree with a bit of chemical on the side.”

  A almost wicked smile spread across the Roschoni’s face, “I happen to know a bit more about you. I believe you could solve two of our problems at once. You are from Montana’s Rocky Mountains. I still don't know what those markings on your arm mean,” she said very deliberately staring at his left arm’s tattoos. “I suspect you thought and thought rather well. Meaning the selection process should be relatively easy for you. In fact I believe you you would excel there. Once you get though well, you’d have as many eyes and ears as you could want. You’d have influence to make any case or champion anything you’d want. You could push back against the lies of this empire should you desire.”

  Noah was annoyed by her announcement. “I thought the brightest night was a failure. A propaganda story we invented. Now you imply it’s a lie. Just drag me to your court or get out. You’re clearly trying to butter me up for a sting.”

  The yet to be named administrator sat up straighter, starting to strain against the gravity. “Noah you are mistaken. The brightest night worked. We have found dozens of off world colonies and there are even newly built human ships with interesting drive signatures. Meaning in the ten years since that event you all have adapted and reversed engineered the tech you captured. I don’t know how exactly the colonies grew so quickly but we’ve been using them to help hide the fact you weren’t an interstellar species when we landed.”

  The sincerity of her words sobered Noah. “You’re saying we made it?”

  “Yes, and I am in a faction that wants a human to make a scene on the galactic stage. While I cannot say much more than that. Go throw some tea in a harbor. Go highlight what’s still going on in the Rockies. Use the ranger position to push back against our government. In essence I think you can be the man who frees Earth.” The administrator was deadly serious.

  That last assertion convinced Noah that he was going to do something incredibly stupid. He stood up, walked over to the fridge, cracked open a beer and sat back down. “Alright administrator what do you need me to do?”

  Hello all and welcome to my Royal Road debut. I have a substack, Grathew's Gazette, where I post odds and ends of stories and talk about worldbuilding and story telling. If you just want this story don't feel obligated to follow me on substack. It will be releasing here at the same day and time (assuming I got my scheduling correct).

  Hope you enjoy the rest of it

  Grathew