The Great Ship Anguish Ameliorated was the best part of ten kilometres across, faintly saucer-shaped on the forward part of the vessel, with a crescent-shaped cutout on the bow side, its underside bulked up with downward-tiered structures and spike-like protuberances, while its aft sections were tiers of technology that formed a ziggurat over the fields of armourglass domes that made up much of its upper surface, holding parks, riding areas, arboreta and starlight theatres.
The ship was sumptuous too, it made no attempt to hid its opulence, as one might approach the miles of bays and docking platforms along its ventral side there were statues and murals, expositions of the glories of the manyfold histories of its creators. An observer from the Ancestral Universe would call it a Necron ship, its hull was deep sea green, but while the harvest ships that had survived the Great Sleep had been tomb-vessels in name and function, this ship was adorned with light.
The quantum flambeaux shimmered with entrancing patterns of light as Zuri Nirra ita Sautekh walked down one of the axial corridors of the Great Ship. She walked with a cane of deep red teak, adorned with gold and capped in ivory, the latter was artificial, but the others were created to traditional patterns of her homeland.
She bore the name Sautekh, but she was not a Necrontyr. Within the Great Civilization, it was customary to bear a number of names, but generally, these ended nos or ita, followed by a clan-name, one that represented affiliation to thousands of clans, or clubs, perhaps, was a better description; they took the names of ancient dynasts but did not trace lineage from them.
She was human and traced her identity down a number of lines, the biological matrilineal, the ideological and more.
She gave a gesture as she greeted her guardians. These were assuredly Necrontyr, and Necrons at that, the rarest of these, the burnished gold, darker in hue than the red-yellow gold she wore on her jewellery, they were adorned in a burnished reddish-gold across their skeletal cuirasses, and they saluted in turn, a clattering of relics accompanying the gesture.
They were Triarch Praetorians, the guards and emissaries of the executive Triarch Council, the matchless warrior band who had never hibernated. Although she was the principal representative here, she felt slightly small before her guards. Each of them had a consciousness worn smooth by the sands of time, and their green jewel-like eyes had watched civilizations rise and fall.
They had been the enforcers of the ancient rulers of the Necrontyr, the teachers of the ancient Yldari, and they had been those who had first turned to the cause of suppressing the rampancy of the Necrons as they had emerged from the Great Sleep.
“Judicator Usarath,” Zuri said, “it is my pleasure to meet you at last.”
The Praetorian gave a bow of her crest-adorned head. “It is our pleasure to convey Supreme Coordinator Amis’ greetings in person,” Usarath said.
“You have inloaded the briefing on the Prole Confederation,” she said, it was not a question, she did not doubt they had all done so, she expected professionalism and knew they expected the same of her.
“I have,” Usarath replied, walking with her now, without any particular formation or intention, the towering machine construct stood far above Zuri’s genetically altered form. “I expect your task will be easy,” the Praetorian said. “The Confederation seems amenable to most of the proposals that we would offer.”
“The information that we have is limited, but we would like to think so,” she said.
The group arrived at a tiered gathering place; a multi-tiered venue for citizens to observe the moment. The Introduction Instrumentality, which employed Zuri, was a newly reformed institution, an evolution of older diplomatic functions into a specialized agency for handling first contact with interstellar capable peoples.
Stepping up onto the raised platform, Zuri let her neural lace speak to the ship, as they arrived, the ship stepping down from its inertialess drive into relativistic travel.
“Greetings to the Sector Trade Hub. This is Adhili Zuri Nirra ita Sautekh, of the Great Civilization Introduction Instrumentality; I bring greetings and respects of the Great Civilization of the C’tan. With your permission, we would like to invite your personnel to board the Anguish Ameliorated for whatever standard inspections you find appropriate, and to dock the ship with the Trade Hub. At your earliest convenience, we have a number of gifts for the staff and residents of the Hub, and a number of cultural exhibitions we would like to offer invitations to aboard this ship. I, of course, am at your disposal to begin preliminary discussions for the future of relations between the Great Civilization and the Confederation.”