The farcaster enigma - IC

[Genomita]

The ooc and sign-up thread is here: https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=316524
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Marja system, neutral territory

The farcaster slowly drifted around the yellow star, it's amorphous, translucent form seemed to bask in the light as it spread out to catch as much radiation as it could. The system surrounding the yellow star was largely emoty, with most of the planets either too close or too far away from the marja too sustain life. However, the fact that it was somewhat out of the way, with not much in the way of resources worth fighting over but "neighbouring" several inhabited systems made it a good place to get in touch with each other, and so the system had been declared neutral ground and was now housing several unaligned space stations and other kinds of habitats. None of this mattered to the farcaster as it continued it's slow orbit around marja, nor did it seem to notice as a pitch black hole formed in it's center. The hole continued to spread until it was large enough to swallow a medium-sized spaceship. And indeed, less than a second later a sleek organic ship emerged from the blackness, which disappeared just as suddenly as it had arrived. The ship appeared to be covered in smooth bark dotted with green in several places, though the presence of several unblinking eyes staring out into the depths of space betrayed it's mixed nature.

"And we have arrived. Welcome to the marja system! Next stop: the local research station." said captain Yles as ze made hir way down from the command center to the mess hall, where the remaining crew members were seated around a large, round table that took up a good deal of the room. The others instantly perked up as ze floated down and landed on one of the seats with practiced ease. The air in the mess hall was rich with pheromonal messages from the others, but even if it hadn't been the excitement of the others was almost palpable. One in particular seemed ready to burst with excitement.

Escha Hadra, hir good friend and scientific head of this expedition was on the edge of hir seat, a wide grin on hir pretty face as ze toasted Yles with a drinking bulb in hir upper right hand. "Great job getting us here so quickly Yles. I still can't believe today's the big day." said the petite scientist as ze sent another drinking bulb containing a bright yellow liquid Yles' way, who caught it with hir upper left.

"You're welcome. You know, I was thinking about taking the long haul and give your new colleagues some time to get worried about us, but knowing you, you probably would've burst something from sheer excitement, or bounced off the walls so hard you would've caused a hull breach."

Escha gave a pretend pout at hir friend's ribbing before ze emptied the sweet, creamy liquid in hir bulb one go. "Anyways, I hope everybody got here okay. There's probably no need to worry, but I can't help but be a little nervous now that we're so close to starting the expedition. At least it doesn't look like anybody refused to come. Then again, why would they? I mean, this is a pretty big deal!"

Yles took a contemplative sip from hir own bulb before replying. "I know what you mean. But yeah, they should be fine. Only a couple minutes more and you'll be able to see them in person."

Escha merely nodded at that, hir eyes flicking back and forth between Yles and the screens that projected what the ship's eyes saw Yles wondered what the others would say when they entered the ship. Contrary to what one might think that the insides of the Sarya were neither squishy and womb-like nor dripping with goop, but smooth and colored in soft greens and browns. "I bet none of them have ever seen something like this fine ship before" thought the captain as ze emptied hir drink.

As the ship closed in on the research station the crew rose from their seats and went to their stations. Yles grabbed a drinking bulb and brought it to the pilot, who had spent the entirety of the flight neurally linked to the ship's brain. And while the pilot received hir nourishment directly from the ship (as technically did the others, but they didn't spend as much time directly linked to it) ze still appreciated a refreshing drink once in a while. Meanwhile Escha waited at the airlock and used the remaining time to check hir appearance and go over what ze knew about hir new coworkers. Once the docking process was complete, Escha took a deep breath and moved out to where they were supposed to meet.

[Derscon]

"Hmm.. 'Service to the Rasthari?' No that's not quite right. 'Slavery' maybe...?" Sjalana muttered to herself as she browsed over several holodocs in front of her. The girl had arrived early - though with no shuttle traffic recorded or noted no one was quite sure how - and had set to pass the time with her editing and translation project.

"Perhaps you should take a break, Master? You have been at this for some time." The ageless attendant, a multi-tailed fox lady in a rather ornate kimono, carefully poured Sjalana's tea from a decorated teapot while smoking from a long pipe. The master waved her concern away.

"No, I need to finish this soon. I'm getting annoyed with it and I want to actually publish this and not throw it away." Brushing her hair aside, Sjalana marched forth through her academic efforts, absent-mindedly reaching for her tea, and promptly spilled it all over her. Her attendant sighed, softly touching the stain on Sjalana's mainfu and lifting the spilled liquid out of it.

"If you weren't so insistent on floating upside down to do your work, this wouldn't be a problem." Sjalana turned her head to face the familiar, her hair falling down to the floor, brushing up against her geta left there.

"This is space. What's wrong with playing with gravity?" The fox only sighed again.

"You're completely unaware of all of the stares you're getting? This is supposed to be a research mission on strange anomalies. You came to have a peek at other peoples' scientists, if only to alleviate your boredom. If you keep this up, you are going to be the one studied. And I'm not helping you." She shrugged, or did something akin to shrugging whilst upside down.

"I'm supposed to care about the opinions of mortals? Although I suppose I'm not too comfortable with just anyone poking and prodding my body. Now, something more important. Would you translate this word as 'service' or 'slavery?" As the Sarya docked, Sjalana and her attendant became absorbed in their work, and neither noticed the docking, the ship, or Escha darting into the room.

[Sunset]

"Gotta admit," Saryan - Dr. Brilla was hardly ever used unless she was at a conference - looked around the interior of the research station, "I was kinda expecting something that looked like a heifer's uterus. All muscles and tissues and gooey bits of dried up blood. This is downright habitable."

The Doctor, however, didn't look like she intended to stay. Instead of luggage, she was wearing one backpack and carrying another and both were covered with self-adhesive patches that then supported any number of additional pouches, pieces of equipment, and various things that could not rightly be described themselves without spending more time than was absolutely necessary.

She hadn't been there very long herself; Scheduling being tight, the Halo-Class Fast Courier that had brought her to the station and the system had dropped her off only a few minutes before the Sarya had arrived and she had gotten all of a few minutes to present her credentials before the Captain had come in. Even as she awkwardly put out a hand, the bag on her shoulder dropping to her elbow to jerk her hand suddenly lower, the ship outside turned and heeled over before disappearing in a long flash of light and soft radiation.

"Saryan, Doctor Saryan Brilla," the other thumb tugged at a sunburst patch on her snug-fitting jumpsuit, which was also covered with the same collection of adhessive patches and gear, "Sunset Exploration Command, civilian scientist. Is that our girl," she asked, hardly waiting for the handshake to be returned before turning to look at a display where the farcaster was framed against the darkness of space. "The farcaster?"

[The Leliel Continuum]

Leliel's core mass floated in the spaces between what most would call dimensional alignments, relaxing as it were if such a term could be applied to her. She pondered the message she receieved from the Star Community. It will be a break from recent events. Scientific investigation is somewhat interesting, and not as...'heavy' I think the term is, as dealing with the aftermath of the Rethast Incident. I'll leave that to Nathrael, they were his 'friends' after all. She resonated her intent back to her parents in the Black Nebula-two of them at least, Adraniel no longer spoke to her. Rumor had iit that the Forgotten Herald had returned. Darker rumors said that Adraniel had been destroyed or banished-this time for real, as a result.

Be careful my child. She heard the resonance of Lord Midnight in her essence. I know you can take care of yourself, but do not yield to temptations... especially on this kind of mission. Of course Blessed Parent, I will always stay true to our ways she replied beofre turning her attentions to the preparations required.

With a thought, a small group of fractals separated themselves from her core mass, as her essence and systems started scanning for the Genomitan research site. A warm feeling came over her as she recognized a familiar dimensional pattern. Mmmm... This is definitely getting much more interesting! as the small fractal cloud adjusted it's energy state and vibratory frequencies, phase-shifting to the research site.

The cloud of glowing fractals appeared near Sjalana. They circled around her legs with a slow, almost sensual movement, shifting constantly in hue and brightnss, but more often then not taking shades of orange. Missed you, girlfriend she resonated to Sjalana, as her fractals moved off a few feet, her recompilers assembling a physical form out of ambient atmospheric atoms. She wore a tight white maillot with the sides cutout, showing most of her midriff. A very short transparent skirt draped down slightly above mid-thigh level.

"Working on something my dear?" Leliel said to her friend, taking a quick look at the holodocs. "Is that that matter Herald Irael mentioned back in the Nebula? I'm sure there is a lot to explore here." adding after a slow look up and down Sjalana-"On the Farcaster as well" smiling broadly.

[The Uthani Imperium]

The Milky Way Galaxy
Marja System, Neutral Territory
USIV Mind's Eye

The Mind's Eye was a pretty ship, a sleek frigate fresh off the Tairn assembly line. Commissioned earlier this year, this little foray into Marja was her maiden voyage, and one her captain didn't particularly care for. Captain Adrian Balanian was young for his post, 27, fresh off the bridge of the impressive Battleship Uthanium, and thirsting to command his ship under fire. A thirst that made this mission all the more unbearable, a fact that he more than happily began relaying to his lone passenger for the hundredth time. "Remind me again Mr. Velocitus why you need a frigate to haul your sorry ass out to neutral space for a research mission?" The Uthani he addressed didn't respond, continuing to flip through the mountain of a binder that lay in his lap, visibly irritating the the captain more so. "Velocitus you may not be a member of the Imperial Navy, but as a subject of the Emperor you are required to respond when an officer speaks to you." Again the man refused to reply, "Dammit!" In an instant the captain was across the room, slamming the binder shut.

Velocitus looked up slowly, apathetically almost, turning the full brunt of his uncaring gaze on the man. "The Imperial Scientific Coalition doesn't promote redundancy Captain, answering the same question the same way multiple times when the circumstances haven't changed is about as redundant as one might be sir." The visibly taken back captain made to speak, only to be silenced by a cool rage that was erupting from Imalateus. "But if you must know sir, it is my opinion that you are either a nuisance, because of your insistence on being deployed into combat. Or viewed as a completely incompetent officer by command, and therefore have been assigned the simplest task they could come up with so that you wouldn't be a corrupting influence on the officers in training at port." Imalateus rose from his seat, brushing aside the captain as he made for the exit. "I will be in the hanger Captain, do try your best not to steer us into the station while I'm gone."

"Dammit man, when we come back for you, bet on having a nice reprimand from the nexus!" The captain made to storm after Imalateus, stopping only at the last minute when he thought better of it.

"I'm sure captain, I'm sure." Imalateus gave a lazy, dismissing, wave as he exited the bridge. "I suppose that there are worse ways to travel," he mused to himself, continuing to advance through the gray corridors and cramped doors of the ship. "Though the company sure is lacking." As he thought this he reached the ship's meager hanger, reconfirming his opinion on the ship's company as he looked on at them. Emotionless faces, blank, void of creativeness, yes they were military boys alright. But soon he would be away from them, and in the realm of serious, intelligent, professionals once again. So with this in mind he approached the hanger's commander, a young lieutenant. "Lieutenant, if you would please update me on the status of my depart time that would be most excellent."

"You hadn't heard Professor? You're departing now." The lieutenant offered a sly smile, "Orders just came down from the bridge."

"Oh that bastard, I haven't even had time to check all my equipment lieutenant!" Imalateus instantly went into to a rage, darting past the lieutenant as he ran into the shuttle. "If everything is not in order when I get to the station you'll have a formal complaint from the ISC on your hand!"

The lieutenant broke out into a wide grin now, "We're on a tight schedule, and I'll take my chances with the ISC. Best of luck sir, I do hope you manage to fine something interesting."

Imalateus didn't bother to answer the lieutenant, darting into the seating area of the shuttle and strapping himself into the seat. As he did so, a voice came through the intercom that was mounted above the long row of metallic benches. "This is flight officer Nemar Holazia, your designated pilot for this trip. We'll be leaving in about one minute with an expected flight time of about five minutes, at this time I'd like to remind all passengers that they are required to remain seated and fastened throughout the entirety of the flight."

Imalateus grumbled to himself loudly, knowing full well that this ridiculous rule would probably cost him some face if he ended up on the station short a few tools. "Yes yes, let's just get on with it." As if on que the craft's hull began to shake beneath his feet, followed by the release of the suspensions that had held the ship a couple of meters above the frigate's hanger. "Onward we go."

Slowly the shuttle began drifting out of the hanger, continuously picking up speed until it was well clear of the frigate and zooming towards the looming space station ahead. Imalateus, never one to follow military regulations, immediately unstrapped from his seat and made for his baggage. He had just accounted for the last of his supplies, when the ship came to an easy stop, giving him just enough time to run back to his seat and strap in before the captain lowered the ramp and came back to see him off.

"Best of luck Professor Velocitus, do try not to estrange these people right off the bat."

Imalateus chuckled quietly to himself, then gave a lazy wave as he headed down the ramp into the station. He caught sight of Escha darting out into one of the conjoining rooms and tried to shout to her, but she was apparently too preoccupied to hear. "Well I suppose I'll follow her then," and follow he did, breaking into a brisk jog in pursuit of the creature.

[Garganoa]

The sleek small black ship flashed out of hyperspace and immediately altered course for the space station as it began to slow down, inside the water filled ship was a single crew member, the ship’s automated systems doing to majority of the work while the translucent looking being that resembled a large Terran jellyfish was linked into the ship through their neural appendage.

Cubozoa did not in general identify themselves with one sex or the other since the entire species reproduced asexually. For the purpose of the research mission though this one had taken a feminine name and decided to refer to itself as a she so that the other races could more easily identify with “her”.

As the ship docked within the research station Aurelia detached her neural tentacle from the ship and swam through it's compartments to where her large black land suit resided. Being a creatures of water had been an inconvenience for the Cubozoa race when dealing with land dwellers until the invention of the dry suits. The Cubozoa dry suit was a hulking black metal suit that resembled most other nations military power armors even though it was less deadly. An extensive sensor was placed on the suit’s shoulders and resembled a normal human head in shape. Inside the suit was filled with the same water that resided inside Aurelia’s ship.

Aurelia swam towards the back of the suit which sat open for her. Once she was fully inside the suit’s torso she linked her neural appendage into the port for it inside the suit. With a thought the suit’s back plates shut and fully enclosed her inside of it and sealed shut. After the suit ran a diagnostic check to ensure all of it’s systems were functioning properly Aurelia made her way towards a smaller room. Once inside a pair of doors closed shut behind her and sealed, after that was completed the water inside the small room began to slowly drain out until was entirely empty. An exterior door slid open and Aurelia inside the suit stepped out of her ship and into the docking area of the research station and Aurelia “felt” the surroundings around her that suit’s sensor array fed directly into her nervous system.

A being running rushing away from her caught her attention as well as another humanoid following the fast moving figure. Thinking that this must be the direction she was supposed to head towards, Aurelia lumbered off into the direction she thought she was supposed to head for.

[Lotrabme]

The B-3 Habitat Galleon called the Osprey had arrived in the system some few hours ago. Now the Bishop Claudios Octevon would be disembarking to the research station in a short time on his own with his equipment.

The Bishop was not like many of his colleagues who had the ILs or the lower Unons and Duons do their work for them, Claudios was a hands on researcher and scientists. This was part of the reason for his popularity back home as an astute and well respected professor. His congregations on his homeworld's moon were large as a result.

The dull blonde Haman was putting the recording equipment into his bright red suitcase marked with the gold staff and 3 stars representing the Sage Council on the cover as a ship adjunct walked up behind him. She said "Monseigneur, the teleporter is ready."

"Splendid, show me the way adjunct." he said with a push as he shoved some of the last items into the suitcase and slammed it shut. Thankfully the equipment he had was not fragile.

The two of them went to the Teleporter chamber, a cylindrical room devoid of any equipment and with particle scramblers on the floor and ceiling. And IL series AI in an orboid form came to speak to him "Are you sure you don't want any escorts Bishop? We do have duons available to aid you."

"Worry not Progot" he said to the orb reassuringly "I will be among fellow scientists, and I trust their abilities." With that the doors would shut heavily and the scramblers would turn on. Activating some of the red matter stored for war they would open a minuscule singularity which would transport the bishop to the Research station.
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On the station, in a flash of yellow light Claudios would appear and re-materialize. His red suitcase in hand and wearing a black robe with gold and maroon designs on it, he realized he had stabilized again and decided to look for his hosts. "They must be around here somewhere" he thought to himself.

The Osprey would remain near the station till the Bishop returned from the expedition, the Noah of the vessel and Progot had no further objectives than to see to the Bishop's safe return.

[Genomita]

Escha dashed through the space station's corridors, hir mind too preoccupied with dozens of questions to notice that some of the people ze had invited were not too far behind hir. Ze skidded to a halt just short of the last turn before the meeting area and paused to take a deep breath and clear hir mind, pinching hir left ankle with hir right prehensile foot as ze did so. Ze then continued around the corner at a more casual pace, reaching the room just as Leliel and Claudios materialized themselves while hir sharp ears began to register the heavy footsteps of Aurelia's dry suit. When Saryan held out a hand Escha stepped forward and took it into hir upper right with a friendly smile and gave it several friendly shakes, secretly relieved that this casual gesture of greeting from their human ancestors had persisted in genomitan culture to this day.

"It's very nice to meet you Saryan. I'm Escha Hadra, and I look forward to working with all of you." said Escha while subtly admiring the good-looking human woman's physique as Saryan turned her attention towards the display on the wall. "And yeah, that's the one. I'm gonna explain things once everyone's here." With that, Escha let go of Saryan's hand and turned to face the entrance. Once Imalateus and Aurelia had entered and a quick confirmation that, no, there was no sign of specialist maker Kehzen or his ship in the area Escha shrugged and walked over to the large display nearby.

"Alright, looks like almost everyone's here! First of all, I'd like to thank you all for joining this important mission. My name's Escha Hadra, and it is both an honor and a pleasure to work with all of you. Now, as for the farcaster..." Escha held out hir lower left towards the display's oval frame and released a pheromonal signal to toggle a larger AR overlay.

"...we know that they are capable of receiving and interpreting radio signals, as that's how we communicate with them to establish a connection to other farcasters, though so far no farcaster has made any attempt to communicate back, at least none that we could detect. We also know that a gully grown farcaster can establish a connection to any other farcaster if given the right coordinates, regardless of the distance or what could possibly be in the way between the two. They are also capable of defending themselves from attacks by compressing themselves to protect their body from enemy fire while simultaneously signaling other farcasters, who will then send whatever hard objects they can scoop up and send it to the one under attack, which will then launch the projectiles with deadly accuracy. Alternatively, they have been observed sucking in hostile ship and sending them to other, far-off farcasters, which will then usually respond by firing them into the nearest star. Though this has happened much less frequently, the ships that are sent of this way always seem to emerge on the other side badly mangled, so it's safe to assume that the farcasters have some manner of defense/immune system capable of dealing significant damage to spaceships."

Escha paused for a moment to let hir words sink in before ze sent another pheromone signal to the display's frame, causing the groups of colorful microorganisms that made up the image to shift into a different pattern, which was reflected on the AR overlay. it now showed a number a pair of farcasters, with the one just outside the station to the left and another one with a planet displayed as "Rophys" to the right, with a tunnel that branched out in a number of places connecting them.

"We'll use the farcaster to establish a connection to the Rophys system, the Star Community's outermost system. All other travek between here and there has been halted for the moment, so we won't have to worry about anything crashing into us. Once the connection has been established our ship will deploy a symbiotic organism developed specificaly to slow farcaster travel to slower than light levels. Initial tests with the organism have been successful, though so far they have largely consisted of approaching the entrance and careful 'prodding' so to speak, so we'll be the first to actually travel between farcasters in this manner. We're also encouraged to explore any possible side paths we might come across. I don't know about you people, but I can't wait to see what these things have in store for us."

Escha took a few steps away from the display and put hir upper hands together while hir lower hands rested at hir hips. "Your rooms aboard the Sarya- and I assure you, that is entirely coincidental," said Escha with an amused smile while looking at Dr. Brilla "all have been modified according to your species' needs, but please let me know if we missed anything and we'll make sure to fix it.Aurelia, your room has been modified so that it can seal off from the others and flood with wather should you wish so you won't have to rely on the dry suit as much, and you'll be able to adjust the water temperature and chemical composition from inside to make sure you're comfortable. Right, with that said, does anybody have questions before we go aboard? I'll answer them to the best of my ability."

[Lotrabme]

Right, with that said, does anybody have questions before we go aboard? I'll answer them to the best of my ability."

Monseigneur Claudios had entered the room the same time as most of the others had, appearing near the time Escha arrived. He sat quietly and listened to the details of the mission, intrigued and awed by these hyper-spatial creatures.

"Good Evening Escha, I am the Bishop Claudios Octevon, Head Professor of Inter-dimensional Studies from the Mind Empire" said the thinning haired and grey skinned Haman standing up. Escha and other Genomitans might recognize his race as another transhumanoid species.

"I am glad" he said "that you have taken such extensive efforts to secure the test-ability of this mission and the comfort of your guests. I am honored to work with you all. I do have a few queries about the nature of the farcasters that is known. In my home Empire, we make use of wormholes created by Red Matter to travel in a similar manner to that used by the farcasters by you. I am intrigued as to what your theories are on their origin, and how you were able to harness there abilities for your own use. Such matters are of interest to me and my faith in particular, beings such as these have a spark of the divine apart in our ideology. It is this connection to the Holy Spirit I am here to investigate, there manner of acting as gatekeepers, and if we can harness such potential ourselves."

[Derscon]

Sjalana glanced over, her irritation at the interruption fading when she identified the culprit. “Ah! It's a Leliel!” She poked her in her exposed side and flipped right-side up, squeezing her fellow dimensional anomaly in a bear hug.

“And yes, it is. Hardly anyone knew about Us when We were all around, and now that We're gone, I'd rather someone remember Us or find Us useful. The only way for me to do that is translate some things to make them more accessible, and assemble a few commentaries. After this, there are a few other things I have planned,” she added, her voice downcast, “but that requires a trip back home, so I'm putting it off with a little Farcaster diversion.”

Escha's arrival interrupted their conversation, and Sjalana turned her attention to their host as ze gave a brief overview of the details. ”It seems,” she telepathically said to Leliel, ”that these 'Farcaster' things are just big passive dimensional blobs. What's so interesting about them? Escha went on, and Sjalana blinked a few times when ze mentioned traveling using the Farcaster.

Before ze had a chance to answer Bishop Octevon's question, Sjalana floated a bit higher so she could be seen and shot her hand up. “Ooh, ooh, right, I have a question, too! You mentioned traveling through the Farcaster? You're going to use the Farcaster as a gate? Are you sure it's okay with that? Did you ask its consent? It's not nice to use other peoples' bodies without their permission, you know.”

[Red Talons]

For most within The Technocracy, travel is complicated. Requiring ships and by extension crew. Kehzan preferred more expedient methods of travel...

At some brief moment, as the presentation was beginning, Kehzan was watching from thereabout the back of the group. At a scant four and a half feet tall, Kehzan was not exactly the most awe inspiring individual. Some might even mistake him for a child were it not for his manner. Although in this instance the first thing those around would notice would be Nix.

The deep green reptile slipped from underneath Kehzan's toga. A number of gold bands adorned the facial horns, a form fitting harness wrapped around the shoulders, and down the spine between it's folded wings. Just over two feet long, Nix was adorned with small platinum, gold, and onyx jewelry. Last to emerge was the creatures tail, which tapered to a tip with a small, stretched, octahedron. Climbing around and onto his backpack before standing up on the Merr's shoulder. Silently and gently perching, using it's wings for balance while keeping them mostly folded as it raised up on hind legs to see.

Throughout the presentation, Kehzan and Nix occasionally exchanged brief glances. FIrst a glance down, a return. Kehzan furrowed his brow, and Nix's tail twitched against the back of the Merr's helmet. When the presenter finished, the duo stared intently at each other. That is until Nix's gaze fixed on a female floating into the air...

[The Awoken Dominion]

About half an hour earlier to present
On the Blood of Our Fathers, On the Blood of Our Sons. These immortal words shone brightly across the wall of Vel Thadam's quarters, pulsing slightly with a purple glow. In the center of the plainly decorated, mostly grey room, Thadam sat silently, in prayer. Sitting on his calves in a meditation position, he slowly bent down to the floor, and raised himself up again. "Blessed architects, of stars and moons and men," he murmured "Bestow upon me the wisdom to uncover the secrets of these mysterious beings. I seek only to serve your light, and bring light to all those who call themselves Awoken."

At that moment, the door to his quarters slid open, revealing a young naval officer. "Sir, we have arrived at the research station".

"Very good ensign. Make sure my equipment is prepared for travel". Vel stood up slowly, and put his hands together into a fist, his thumbs touching between his eyes. "In the name of the praetor, the prophet, and the first architects." He said softly, before leaving the room.

Vel could not help feeling a sense of pride as he strode into the research station. He had received his commission for this expedition from the council of hierarchs, chosen from a pool of all the potential candidates in the Fleet of Pioneering Knowledge, the local science fleet. This would be his third expedition outside of Dominion space, but his first without a full team of Awoken scientists. The Awoken Dominion is isolationist bordering on xenophobic on most occasions, so the decision to send an agent to a conference like this was almost unprecedented. Entering the station, Vel was startled to realize he was walking inside a living organism. "By the Gods" He whispered. he had never seen an organic ship before, much less one of this complexity.

Present

Thadam listened intently through the briefing, and the slightly humorous question by a small floating female. He raised his hand slowly. "What information is there on the origins of the farcasters, and do we have any way of finding out the age of one?

[The Uthani Imperium]

The Milky Way Galaxy
Marja System, Neutral Territory

Imalateus took his seat, making sure he was towards the very front of the group as his ego demanded. "Quite a mixed lot these Genomitans have assembled," he mused to himself, taking a cursory glance around the room to confirm. Discounting the scantily clad and oddly robed, obnoxious, floating humanoids. There seemed to be a rather furtive and diminutive hairball exchanging dubious glances with a lizard towards the back of the group. As well as some sort of sickly-looking priest, and some sort of aquatic creature that appeared to be wrapped up in a tin can so that it could move about the ship without dying.

Throw in the rather tall, blue looking humanoid thing, a bumpkin human and of course the four armed Genomitan itself and you had quite the team assembled. Imalateus was attempting to discern the species of the two floating creatures when the Genomitan began their briefing, and thus alarm bells started ringing. The basic premise of the mission seemed solid enough, go in, catalog the experience and see if it was a direct link or some sort of highway so to speak. But as the Genomitan continued it became rather apparent, to Imalateus at least, that they had no idea what they were messing with. And more so they were willing to take gratuitous risk with the life of this team, which of course most importantly, included his own.

He had been prepared to interject on all their behalves, but alas the gray priest or whatever he was managed to steal the first word, much to his chagrin. Begrudgingly he kept his silence, listening as the priest completely ignored what should have been their primary concern. At last the man finished, and Imalateus made to speak, only to once again have his attempt frustrated. This time by one of the floating girls or whatever they were. As soon as the girl started talking, Imalateus buried his face in his hands. Letting out a long, audible, exasperated, sigh as the creature continued. She had barely finished speaking when the frustrated Imalateus shot to his feet in a violent motion.

"I'm sorry if you'd just allow me to interject for one moment, discounting whatever ethical concerns my compatriot might have in regards to this creature." He stressed the word, giving a dismissive wave towards the floating girl as he paused for a moment. "How about we look at the real ethical dilemma we have here. Correct me if I'm wrong friend, but I do believe you've just suggested that we sail into some creature that you have observed as having the tendency to mangle and eject starships into stars whenever it is assaulted." Imalateus threw his hands up in exasperation, "So then how do we know that sailing at below faster-than-light speeds will not be viewed as some sort of assault by the creature? You say you've only prodded it, why is that? It seems to me that you're loath to attempt this with a team primarily made up of your own people and would much rather risk all of our lives in some sort of half-cocked adventure through a perpetual void!"

[Derscon]

"There are no ethical concerns on that account, Mr. Rude Interrupter Man," Sjalana retorted. "It's not science if you're not taking risks, and you're here on your own accord." From the side, she took a sip of tea from a cup that was handed to her by her attendant, and quickly whisked away. "The Farcaster, on the other hand, has far more room to complain, as we will be entering it without regard for its own opinion. Ethical concerns aside," she mocked, "after all, we are doing science and apparently you don't care about the integrity of species other than your own, if the Farcaster doesn't take kindly to being probed without its consent, it doesn't bode well for most of the crew, so my rude colleague here has a point." Taking a celebratory victory sip of more tea, her eyes darted to the Nix staring somewhat intently at her. Her eyes going wide and filling with sparkles, she quickly zipped over to it and picked it up off of the Merr's shoulder, cradling it in her own floating lap and scratching it behind its ears. "Oh it's cute~!," she exclaimed in an excited whisper. "It looks just like one of my dragons!"

[The Awoken Dominion]

Vel could not suppress a smirk at the interjection of the female, but felt he must back up the other researcher's concern. "I must agree with..Imalateus? Is it? Well, I must agree that there seems to be very little known about these begins, save from the fact that they appear to be dangerous, and sentient. You say they are ancient? Well I'm sure my superiors on the high council of truth and spirit would be very concerned about the possibility of disturbing a living relic of the time of the gods! Even if you do not share our faith in the First Architects (see factbook), you must admit that tampering with such a powerful being is dangerous to say the least. More attempts should be made for an attempt at communication, before a direct motion that could, as my the righteous Imalateus has said, be seen as an assault.

[Moad]

The meeting had already begun when Heara Ibinis arrived. As somebody who put a lot of story by punctuality, she felt this was not the best first impression to make. Not that it was her fault the transport had been forced off course to avoid a supernova, but still. She quietly slipped in and tried to pretend she had been there all along.

The appearances of all the scientists was somewhat shocking to her. Even though she knew she would be working with an entirely alien crew and had been prepared, it was still disconcerting to be surrounded by such a strange crew. It was just like her first offworld research expedition, except at least then her crewmates had all been familiar species. She was able to handle that and she could handle this too. These were, after all, scientists just like her.

A few of the scientists were discussing safety concerns and she angled her ears toward them. She heard one of them, Vel Thadam if memory served, mention that the farcasters were "dangerous and sentient."

"While I agree that the farcasters are probably dangerous we cannot make any assumptions as to their sentience. Many species have elaborate defense mechanisms. The Scientific Corps has records of a species of insect which was capable of launching organized attacks against other colonies, yet showed no more sign of sentience than my headset." She tapped the device on her face for emphasis. "We cannot rush to such radical conclusions without evidence. But of course, I'm not saying they aren't either." She turned to Escha. "Is there any reason to think the farcasters are sentient?"

[The Leliel Continuum]

Leliel returned Sjalana's hug, while replying to her telepathic transmission I missed you! the anomaly? Well, some peoples-most peoples thinking is still so very 3-dimensional, so from there persepctive it must be rather fascinating I'd suspect. I must say though the origin of these 'Farcasters' is somewhat of interest to me. Leliel listened to the rather arrogant tone of Immalateus, smiling as Sjalana replied to him. Turning to Immalateus she said "Arrogance is a quality not truly befitting a scientist you know. That being said you raise a very valid point regarding the defensive response capability of these Farcasters. My good friend Sjalana also has a point regarding the potential sentience of the creature...construct... whatever term best applies."

She then listened carefully as Vel and Heara Ibinis voiced their concerns about the Farcasters. "Valid concerns, all" she said in her melodic resonant voice. Then turning to Escha she said "Is there any data available as to the response threshhold with regards to what the Farcasters consider threats? That would help a lot in planning our approach. Also has there ever been any sign of anythinjg beyond simple stimulus-response behavior from them? Not just communication but any evidence of a behavior pattern that could indicate a possible sentience? It is possible these Farcasters could be in something approximating comatose states in humans or similar lifeforms."

[Garganoa]

Aurelia had sat quietly and listened to the conversation that had played out back and forth. She was slightly annoyed that the others present seemed to prefer auditory communication instead of optical, which was the prefered communication method for the Cubozoa. She waited patiently for the others to speak and finish, their goals seemed almost selfish to the Cubozoa, but then again Aurelia generally had a hard time interpreting other species body language. The two women who seemed to be younger, if Aurelia had her terms correct, sent Aurelia’s suit sensors crazy, one moment they seemed to be there and the next they entirely disappeared. This caused the Cubozoa a bit of concern, especially if Aurelia was to accomplish what she desired in this little mission she had been tasked with.

Multiple lights began flashing on the front of Aurelia’s suit, several colors flashed almost every second as she tried to convey her gratitude to Escha at her consideration for modifying a room specifically for herself. Aurelia realized her error after the light show was almost complete.

“I’m sorry.” came the watery techno voice from the suit’s speakers as Aurelia switched her suit to auditory communication with a thought.

“I am truly used to not communicating with...vocal, as one would call it I suppose, methods. Please can I thank my hosts for making me comfortable on our voyage.” said Aurelia through her suit. Aurelia would have to become more accustomed to speaking while she was here to fit in better. She hoped that her words were correct in their use as well as her tone being proper so as not to come across as hostile or arrogant to the others which she took a moment to more fully scan.

There was their host, Escha she called herself. The alien seemed excitable and high energy. Aurelia was very mildly annoyed by this due to the Cubozoa being a more laid back race.

The next alien was the smaller rodent-like, Aurelia assumed the term rodent from here databank would have to suffice, humanoid called Kehzen that had popped out of nowhere. A closer scan revealed a dark paranormal aura surrounding the xenos.

Next was the large reptile who seemed to be aggravated for some unusual reason. Aurelia was confused at to what seemed to be causing Imalateus and took a moment to contemplate it before moving onto the next being.

The Haman and the Awoken both looked vaguely familiar to the humans that seemed to be quite prolific amongst the Milky Way Galaxy and Aurelia wondered if the were evolutions of the human race.

The Anghi seemed feline in nature as well, another term Aurelia pulled from her databanks, quickly reading it the Cubozoa was intrigued at the possibility of Kehzen and Heara possibly coming into conflict due to their more animal relatives being hated enemies.

And finally Aurelia tried again to do a more thorough scan of the two floating women, again her suit sensors went wild. In what amounted to a scowl Aurelia ceased her inspection of them and turned her attention back to the conversation at hand.

[Sunset]

"Ya know," Saryan dropped one bag and unslung the other with a bit of a casualness that either said something about how much she valued their contents or was assured of their ruggedness, "I say we go for it!"

Taking a seat, she sat back in the chair and put her feet up on the nearest surface. It was hard not to notice that she was, for some reason, wearing spike-heeled boots that were entirely impractical for anything nearing a run and possibly even a walk. They did look fantastic though. But the motion of raising her arms to lace her fingers behind her head had also done impressive things to her chest and almost sent it surging up and out of the jumpsuit, which had suddenly developed an impressive gap of cleavage as her raised arms pulled the fabric up and out.

"I was honestly expecting a couple unmanned probes, or a week in front of a sensor station with a bottle of Wild Turkey to keep the edge off, but it sounds like you're ready to go and so am I! Let's go see the inside of this thing and we'll figure stuff out as we go. As you said, it's gonna slow way down so all the questions can be answered en route."

With a sudden motion and an audible 'oof' that managed to make the effort sound painful, she dropped her feet and leaned forward between them, oblivious to the display she was putting on for those who could see down the front of her jumpsuit. This managed to answer the question as to whether she was wearing a bra - yes, red lace and scandalously low-cut - and raise the question of just what that tattoo depicted and where she had got it. Fishing around in her backpack she pulled out a flask though it was more of a canteen due to the size.

"Speaking of; To success and science!" A swig and she raised the flask to follow it with another. "Double lucky!"

[Genomita]

Escha listened closely as the members of hir new team asked their questions, the genomitan's light brown eyes focusing on each of them as they spoke. Ze had originaly intended to answer them in in the order they had been voiced until Imalateus spoke up and basically accused hir of risking all of their lives in pursuit of adventure. As he spoke Escha felt a low growl from the symbiosuit rise in hir throat, but managed to swallow it down before it became audible. At the same time, the symbiosuit's skin at hir neck and hands began to turn from it's usual emerald green to a dull red even as hir own cheeks flushed in response to the accusation. Escha forced hirself to slowly close hir eyes and take a deep breath as ze took in the words of the others, all four of hir hands at chest height with the fingers intertwined.

"Calm down, I can't blow up at a time like this, especially not so soon after meeting them all or I'll never hear the end of it. thought Escha, the chromatophores of hir symbiosuit slowly returning to normal as ze thought. The genomitan scientist opened hir eyes just in time to see Aurelia's response, who quickly switched to vocal communication once she realized her mistake. Ze smiled at the Cubozoa's gratitude, making a mental note to accompany hir words with optical messages with hir chromatophores from here on when Aurelia was present. Though the 'code' of the language was different the underlying principles were the same, and despite what Escha's energetic demeanor might led one to believe ze actually took preparing for hir missions very seriously and had diligently studied the Cubozoa language after deciding to invite Aurelia. When Saryan made herself comfortable and spoke up the sight send warm shivers running down Escha's spine and ze had to resist the urge to bite hir bottom lip and stare.

"Ooooh yes, I can already tell we'll get along swimmingly... It's almost like she's doing it on purpose to come on to me. Wait, perhaps she is- damnit, I can't think about that now, I need to focus!"

"Yeah, to success and science. I can definetly drink to that." replied Escha as ze mimed a toast with hir upper right, a big grin on hir face before turning hir full attention towards Imalateus. "You know, our human ancestors had a saying that I'm very fond of. 'With his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure science.' Beautiful, isn't it? It means that there is much more to discovering the mysteries of the universe than you can find in a lab, and you should go out and see it with your own eyes, hear it, feel it, smell it and taste it as you take it all in. I believe a scientist should have the courage to fully immerse themselves in their work. Not to the extent of sacrificing their life for it, of course, unless it is to save other people, and even then... Either way, your concerns have been noted. And of course I'm not going to send us in there without making sure it's safe. I'll have you know that I'm honor-bound to bring all of you back safely, or at least as many of you as possible. But even if I wasn't I'd never sacrifice someone else's life for my research. I know that some species out there value their own more than others or even think of other species as their lessers and that is both unfortunate and puzzling to me. Perhaps you' were even on the receiving end of such deluded behaviour. But I assure you, my people aren't like that. All are treated equal and according to their needs, be they members of the star community or not."

Escha cleared hir throat, a tad louder than ze had intended. Hir symbiosuit's chromatophores had translated the entire thing into rapid flashes of color across hir body in the Cubozoa language, and hopefully correctly so. It was fortunate that Escha was a spacer, as that way of communication was very popular among them, particularily because they tended to spend long periods of time in places where pheromone-based communication was either difficult or impossible. The only other genomitans with a similar reliance on their chromatophores were those who lived in the deepest trenches of Qaura's oceans, though they tended to add bioluminescence to the mix. "Either ways, remember when I said that our tests have largely consisted of careful prodding? We've also equipped some drones with the same symbiont we've put on the ship and sent them in to get a visual for us. Yeah, yeah I know I should've mentioned that earlier, but you know how these things go. And since they've neither been horribly mangled nor fired into a distant star so far, I think it's fairly safe to assume that the big ol' space amoeba don't mind them there. Now as for your others questions..."

Escha nodded to hirself, turning hir attention to Monseigneur Claudios first. "Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm no expert on the religious matters, but I can see why you're interested. To tell the truth, the most common theory, and the one I tend to agree with is that the farcasters are somehow capable of existing in multiple dimensions at one time. As for how we were able to harness them for our own use, well, that's kind of a long story. To give you the gist of it, we didn't create the bioships we use. Our human ancestory found them, or perhaps they were the ones who found our ancestors. A agreement was made, according to which our ancestors would be allowed to use the living ships as their own if they agreed to keep looking for others of their kind that might be scattered among the stars. The bioships were already capable of traveling through farcasters way back then, so for all we know the people who originally created these ships also found a way to harness the farcasters. Wether they originally existed like this or wether that other species somehow managed drag parts of them into the physical world is unknown. So yeah, if you have access to our bioships you can travel through the farcasters just fine. And who knows, we might very well come across some connection to the Holy Spirit.

As for determining their age, well, the ones we bred ourselves are well-documented, but there were already many of them around before we found out how to spread them ourselves, and we still keep discovering new coordinates to dormant ones. And determining their age really isn't much different from any other living organism, except you take samples while in space, with just a cable connecting you a nearby ship, and very carefully. And I know I said they don't communicate back to us, at leeast not in ways we can detect or understand, but so far no farcaster has refused entry to or harmed one of our bioships. Wether that is a voluntary reaction or an engineered one remains to be discovered, and is in fact one of the questions I hope to answer during this expedition, as is the question of their sentience. Also, I'd like to say that I'm truly glad to work with people who are so considerate towards a new species of unknown origins they only just encountered. I know I selected the right people for the job."

Escha began to pace around a bit, mostly to loosen hir muscles a bit. Ze could barely wait to be back in microgravity. "Now as for their behaviour patterns and response threshold... They seem mostly content to float about in a certain distance from a star and bathe in it's radiation, though always in such a manner that none of the planets in the system receive less light than they would without their presence. A mature farcaster can reach impressive sizes, but so far there have been no cases of farcasters casting a shadow on inhabited planets, accidentially or otherwise. And unless you start firing at one or try to ram your ship into them they're perfectly peacable, though they can and will instantly close the gate if a non-organic ship tries to floolow a genomitan ship through. That, or they'll just open a tunnel somewhere else, and you can imagine the rest."

Escha had just finished speaking when a small chirping sound from hir communicator informed Escha that Yles had sent hir a message. The message read simply:

Code: Select all

Preparations are complete, ready when you are ^^

"Alriiight! Guess what everyone, we are officially ready for takeoff. So we can head off whenever you're ready- Oh hold on, I promised you visuals didn't I? Just gimme a sec..."

Escha almost leapt back to the AR display, this time releasing a more complex pheromone message that would trigger a recording of the visual date collected by the scouting drones. "Come on my pretties. Gimme. those. pictuuureees!" said Escha half to hirself as ze leaned back in front of the AR image with hir arms spread wide as if to embrace the projection, which was suddenly replaced by the mouth of a vast tunnel with strangely gooey, translucent walls that seemed to shift slightly as they watched Rapidly changing numbers at the lower right of the image documented the fluctuation of the tunnel walls and the drones' overall status.

"Oh yeah, I'm liking this. Seems like it#s stable within the area affected by the symbiont, but fluctuating outside of it. And we're getting some kind of resonance here. Weird... I wonder what that is."

[Red Talons]

As Sjalana lifted Nix, she would hear in her mind, 'Hey, what are you. Stop it, you... Naked ape....' The thought trailed off into a contented churr. Nix looked back at Kehzan, the Merr folding his arms. "Well, I am surprised, you have managed to render the little egg-white speechless!"

He chuckled, a slightly raspy sound, adjusting his backpack slightly. His fur was a salt and pepper grey, and neatly kept. With hints of a tuft forming on his chin, giving him something of a thin white goatee. Reaching up to scratch along Nix's belly. "I am Kehzan, and this is Nix. We are from The Technocracy or Red Talons, and who might you be milady?" As he 'looked' up at her in earnest, his solid deep purple eyes had no immediate evidence of an iris.

Sjalana narrowed her eyes, her grip on the Rapax tightening a bit. “In deference to your partner’s politeness and your cuteness, lizard, I won’t electrocute you for calling me an ape.” She let her bare foot touch the ground, and gave Kezan a polite - though not deferential - bow.

“It is good to meet you as well, Kehzan,” she responded, taking on an air of dignity in contrast to her usual carefree demeanor. “I have not yet had the pleasure of visiting the Technocracy, but I know of it. I am Sjalana Lafielisthari,” the girl said, smiling. “And I am currently homeless!”

“Well that is unfortunate, or fortunate, depending on your perspective. I always enjoyed traveling, seeing new places and all that.” Sjalana nodded.

“Oh, I’m inclined to agree; I’ve always enjoyed traveling, more so than even some of my family. Still, being alone is pretty hard sometimes,” she added, still smiling.

As the speaker went on, both of them kept an ear open, listening along. Occasionally Kehzan's ears would flick or his tail would twitch. Nix's eyes were barely open slits, occasionally fidgeting while thoroughly enjoying the attention. "What brings you to this neck of the galaxy, besides the obvious?" He said with a nod to the speaker. Sjalana only shrugged.

“Honestly? I wanted some time to work on a thing I’m eventually going to publish, and the dimensional blobs sounded interesting enough to distract me when I’m not working. And travel is always fun!" Sjalana jump-floated up onto Kehzan’s shoulders while snuggling Nix. Bending down to meet the Merr’s face, she gave an innocent grin. “Besides, there’s always interesting people to meet!” A light thwap! came from behind, smacking Sjalana in the back.

“It’s rude to harass people you just meet, Master.” The multi-tailed fox familiar took the end of her pipe and repeatedly poked Sjalana in the side, tickling her until she jumped off. “And give the Rapax back.”

Kehzan chuckled, bowing to the two. “It is no bother, it is refreshing to be around friendly people again.” He smiled. Once the probe's data played, Nix sat up alert, hopping out of Sjalana’s arms to land on the backpack. Craning his neck and once again standing upright to see. Kezan's attention also visibly shifted.

"Oh my... Fascinating... This is a marvel of biotechnology indeed." He exchanged glances with Nix, the two staring for a moment before both nodded.

"Alright we're in, let's go!" Kehzan said with an upbeat tone.

[Garganoa]

The Cubozoa scowled inwardly as the loud human began throwing things around and loudly clomping about. Is Aurelia had eyes and a mouth she would have rolled them and scoffed at the casualness of the woman

Aurelia felt a slight shudder of excitement go through her nervous system when Escha began communicating how Aurelia thought most organisms should interact with one another. The familiarity seemed to put the Cubozoa at ease and she relaxed a little.

As Escha answered the Haman’s question and spoke more of the biology and the history Aurelia leaned forwards and made sure her audio receptors recorded everything along with Aurelia’s visual scanners recording all the information displayed on the screen and saved the data for later when Aurelia would have a chance to more thoroughly observe it. For now though she tried to remember the high points.

“And what have the samples you have recovered shown you so far as to anything that might explain why these creatures are capable of replicating warp technology that even some of the more advanced races struggle with from time to time. Also is it only Genomitan bio ships or have other bio ships had success, and how are you able to precisely tell the farcasters where you want to go.” Aurelia flashed back to Escha in using her suits light communication system again, once more forgetting that only her and Escha could understand each other with the visual communication method.

[The Leliel Continuum]

"Oh yeah, I'm liking this. Seems like it's stable within the area affected by the symbiont, but fluctuating outside of it. And we're getting some kind of resonance here. Weird... I wonder what that is."

Leliel heard Escha mention the subject of resonance. With a smile she looked to Sjalana and said "Time for come science and all...Back soon. You will have to introduce me to your new friends too!" and then alighted on the ground, walking over to Escha.

"Resonance you say?" She spoke, addressing the Genomitan. "Considering the apparent multidimensional nature of the farcasters perhaps quantum or string resonance? It seems likely that entanglement or some similar principle links the Farcasters together. This is a principle used in some of our data networks and other systems. As far as the age of the Farcasters, I would advise caution in one's analysis. Devices or beings on this level often have rather unusual relationships with time."

Leliel looked towards Aurelia when she approached, noting the EM emissions from her light communicator. Interesting... she thought without making any attempt to decipher. She merely nodded politely towards Aurelia and said "Greetings. I am Leliel, of the Mu Empire. To who do I have the honor of addressing?"

Leliel adjusted her internal barriers and stabilization systems to prevent any emissions from her own systemry from affecting the Farcaster when they entered the conduit. Better not to take any chances after all.