Cold Topics [Closed]

by **Kyasiouna** » Mon Aug 01, 2016 1:48 am

Upon realizing her mistake in explanation Ril was quick to cut off Distant as she tried to better explain her request. She again spoke in a great hurry, not to an extent that her speech was impaired, but for an unpracticed listener it could be difficult to make out.

“Nonono, i’m so sorry I wasn’t clear in my explanation. What I meant is that I don’t have access to the facilities on board the Deep Ocean to decode these transmissions. The Mother is actively suppressing the fact that we are even receiving them. I made a few notes before bringing it to her attention and, to my knowledge, I was made to forget that I had discovered the transmissions. If not for my precautions to remind myself of this discovery I would be none the wiser. Upon discovering her intentions to prevent contact with the base of operations I tried to decode them myself but I assumed the computer on the ship would notify the queen before I completed this task. Like I mentioned I have the prime number that is used to decode the transmissions memorized it is only a matter of applying the prime number to the transmission. I could do this process on a calculator if I had the free time to work on it. But a simple computer with a clock speed of 1.2ghz single core could decode all of the transmissions in less than an hour.” She held up the table that she had taken from her crate. “This device can rebroadcast the signal, But the majority of the stored information is duplicated. Several years ago the transmissions stopped changing and just started a loop. Occasionally there is a small change but I assume that it is political updates or something mundane. This tablet is rather rudimentary and works in a mostly mechanical sense. I have to rewind and fast forward through the broadcasts to play it back, but I have memorized the locations of the varying transmissions so I can play back the bits that have unique information.” At the end of the speech Ril was shivering, either from the temperature or perhaps the balance of chemicals in her body. She watched Distant with wide eyes.

Sularn’s first instinct was to destroy the door and find out who had hijacked his shipment, but after analyzing what had happened to the other person who had made such a decision he restrained himself and stared at the door. He was only able to hold his composure for a few seconds before he lifted his voice, “What do you mean stowaway? Is it a Kyasian? You mean stowaway as in the Queen didn’t order it? Is she of a different Queen?” Sularn, realizing he was asking many questions, stopped instead turning back to the freighter. He spoke as he swam, “Sorry, I have no reason to question your approach to whats happening i’m sure you have it under control, just make sure she doesn’t mess with the coral.” He got to the freighter and pulled a box with black stripes along it's dark metal surface. The paint was iridescent and shimmered as Sularn dragged it through the water.

“This is what i'm told to refer to as a Clean Box. It contains large samples of all known bacteria and viruses that live and occur in the coral farms that we use in space. All strains are monitored closely in order to prevent disease from forming and spreading. While it would be completely safe for me and Kalsuri to consume its contents, I have been ordered to have you survey and test its contents to make sure that none of these foreign bodies can endanger your life. Assuming they can’t then we can continue. In the event that they are dangerous to Camilans, we would have to explore options in modifying the aquarium or its contents to support a safe environment the crew. Given the expenditure of Kalsuri and myself, it is considered unnecessary to perform the task in reverse unless you wish to board the Deep Ocean at some point.” Sularn, now close to Kalsuri, handed her the box, “If you want Kalsuri to take it to a lab, it would seem the ships is built for people her size.” Kalsuri appeared miffed at her service being volunteered without her input but it seemed like a small thing to argue over, besides if she got to see more of the ship it wasn’t something she would protest.

by **Camila I** » Mon Aug 01, 2016 9:59 pm

The shipmind's avatar eyed Sularn as he explained what the clean box was for.

"I appreciate the concern for our safety. Really I do. But, with all due respect, I will direct the resources of my ship how I choose. I am well aware of the risk of cross-species infection. I am also aware that the process of testing thousands of microbe species for their lethality would require a huge time investment on the part of Najma, who is the only one qualified to undertake such an endeavor. Had we encountered a waterworld inhabited only by bacteria, I am sure she would have been happy to pour her heart into their study. But frankly, there are more interesting and valuable research prospects in you yourselves."

"Besides, Kalsuri has already inadvertently exposed the majority of my crew to her own microbiota by removing her suit in their presence. I did not protest this because it was not worth protesting. If I value her comfort more than I value shielding my crew from this risk, then the risk must be fairly small, don't you think? Certainly nothing in comparison to a significant chunk of Najma's life."

"If my refusal to have Najma complete the survey prevents you from setting up your habitat, I invite you to take it up with your queen. You can tell her that I accept the risk voluntarily - you having an enriching environment is also more valuable to me."

Inside the aquarium, the avatar temporarily displayed a tendril and made a sweeping gesture across the bottom of the screen, as if to offer something. "In that case, there is a tablet stored below this screen that can connect to all the computers in this ship - you are free to use all available processing power for your task. If you decode the transmissions in parallel it should only take a few minutes. Just let me know if you need any help with the UI." Distant decided not to ask how the Kyasian had gotten this information in the first place. However, it made a mental note not to generalize Kalsuri's behavior quite so liberally to the rest of the workers. This one was obviously much more willing to go against the queen's orders, and seemed to have the foresight and cleverness to actually pull it off.

By default, the tablet recorded every operation it took. Should Ril accept the shipmind's offer it would be privy to her results.

Outside, the door in the connecting room opened to admit two figures. Ukeiri would be recognizable by his slight frame and by the mechanical exoskeleton that encased his body. Najma would be recognizable by her larger frame only. Both figures were dressed in insulative wetsuits that left their hands, feet, eyestalks, and the tips of their tendrils exposed. The female's was light gray with dark gray stripes down the sides, while the male's was blue with white, bearing several white symbols on the shoulder that signified the nature of his injuries to whoever could understand them.

Ukeiri's chest heaved in an exaggerated fashion, and the rhythmic whirring of the cuirass could be heard from several meters away. A pair of wires ran down the length of his eyestalk and into the cuirass, attached to his eyelids by adhesive pads. When he blinked, the wires were pulled upward and tautened noticeably.

Until this point, Ukeiri had been allowing Najma to support him and help him move, but he gently shrugged her off upon seeing Kalsuri and swam toward her. Remembering her earlier unease, he didn't get too close, stopping about a meter away and looking intently at her. He didn't say anything at first, mostly because he couldn't think of anything appropriate. This was the creature that had sided with him against what was effectively God.

"Well," he said, "that was certainly quite the argument eh? Took me a while, but I guess I got the point in the end." His veneer of seriousness broke and he opened his beak in a wide grin.

"Sorry, sorry. It's just that I don't really know what to say. Which is a rare occurrence for me, so I'm even less prepared for it than most. Uh... thank you."

"No, that is definitely inadequate."

by **Kyasiouna** » Tue Aug 02, 2016 1:57 am

After shoving the, now useless crate, back at Sularn with decisive excess of force, Kalsuri looked back to Distant and remarked, “It's seems that we function better by keeping our own safety in mind.”

Sularn interjected allowing himself to answer Distant’s questions about the habitat, “Aside from the present delays nothing else will keep me from completing my tasks. I don’t need approval from anyone but you to start unloading.”

“Wait,” Kalsuri turned her to face Sularn, “Present delays? What does that mean?”

“The aquarium is unavailable for now.” He towered over Kalsuri, “I was told it was temporary.”

The female didn’t cower but she didn’t ask any other questions. She did mumble inaudibly, though it was clearly broadcasted through her translator. She had since activated a small speaker to allow her to speak to Sularn with her helmet on, it, appropriately, did not broadcast her voice at a volume that anyone could make out. “No reason to act so defensive, it was just a question...”

Seeing the light but not hearing her Sularn’s eyes narrowed behind the visor. “You know that I can tell when you are talking quietly, the light for your translator still activates.”

“Haha… yeah, I knew that,” Kalsuri shifted her posture drawing away from Sularn a little bit, “Just saying that I thought that made sense, I was... being dismissive.” She looked away from the male rubbing her forearm with one of her opposing hands.

Sularn turned away swirling his tail past Kalsuri with great force. This, like the time before, caused her to spiral about in the current until it the water settled enough that she could right herself. He called out as he moved back towards the freighter with the Clean Box in tow, “Calm down! I can tell you’re stressed out!”

“You’ve no reason to do that!” Kalsuri could tell that her protest was a weak one at that, therefore she was not surprised that Sularn offered no rebuttal as he returned to his work. She watched him, equally aggravated and entranced. It was intriguing to interact with a male; they were quite dissimilar to females.

Surrounded by crates, the female engineer stared blankly at distant processing the implications of his actions. After realizing that it was offering the assistance she had asked for she rushed to the console and wasted no time attempting to familiarize herself with the UI. Ril’s jaw clenched relaxed as she struggled to figure out the interface. She was eventually forced to admit that she did not have enough knowledge of the Camilan language to work the console on her own. Resorting to asking for instructions to start decrypting the signal and how to get the tablet to recognize the style of laser transmissions Ril was soon able to start the process. The light from the tablet that she held began broadcasting at an accelerated rate allowing years of transmissions to be rebroadcasted in a much shorter period. Ril’s body shudder with anticipation as the process was underway. She clenched her hands against her shoulders in an attempt to stifle the anticipation. After several minutes of recording she shut of the tablet and, with Distant’s instruction, entered two 19 digit prime numbers as the key for decryption. With the stars finally aligned, Ril watched as the progress of the decryption gradually crawled across the screen.

The majority of the records where as Ril had hypothesised, information of the political status being unchanged along with the date, with this data there was also a periodic rebroadcast of transmission 02.

>>rebroadcasting transmission 0097412-02

>Orbital Dock 3 Station 4 broadcasting to vessel renamed [Deep Ocean]

>/message body/
The distress broadcasts of the combat vessel [Sintu Destroyer] have officially been recognized to have ceased all activity. The status of these transmissions have been confirmed by 23 separate approximately equidistant communication arrays. In conclusion the [Sintu Destroyer] is offically recognized to be destroyed and completely inoperable. The update to your mission is to return to Orbital Dock for maintenance and recreation as soon as this message is received. The committee sends its deepest condolences to those on board in light of this news.
>/message stop/

>/timestamp/
this message has been rebroadcast to ensure its reception by the [Deep Ocean] it has been [203845] day[s] since the message has been predicted to reach your vessel.

>/notificationresponse/
as of [150894] day[s] ago it was predicted that we would have received notification of the [Deep Ocean] receiving and accepting its updated commands. after [20000] days of no notification of reception it will be assumed that the vessel [Deep Ocean] is incapacitated.

>/missinginaction/
the committee now recognizes the vessel [Deep Ocean] as missing in action, and assumed destroyed. no rescue mission will be attempted as a result of this section of space being determined unfit for travel after the loss of two committee vessels. the committee’s decision will be put under review should the [Deep Ocean] or the [Sintu Destroyer] make successful contact with any recognized committee communications array.

>/notificationrepeat/
this is the last transmission that will be transmitted to the [Deep Ocean] the broadcast will repeat until the vessel status is determined.

Ril stared at the information, she had nothing to say.

Sularn floated next to the freighter as he waited for the availability of the aquarium. Kalsuri was fortunate that she was not given the opportunity to grow bored of watching him do nothing as she her gaze was drawn to the sound of machinery from behind her. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to see Ukeiri alive after Distant and said they could revive Ukeiri, but Kalsuri couldn’t help but stare at the no longer late Ukeiri.

Laughing in response to his self criticism she commented as she gestured at the Camlian’s chest, “You seem to have handled being shot better than I could have.” Hissing at her own joke she removed her helmet holding it to her side she leaned in closer to get a better look at the strange device attached to his eyes. “Would you believe that I annoyed Distant into redacting his decision to kill you?”

by **Camila I** » Tue Aug 02, 2016 8:37 am

Distant surveyed the dynamic between the two Kyasians with distaste. It ignored Kalsuri's jab at it, but spoke up upon seeing the male tail whip her a second time.

"Kalsuri, if that is bothering you, you are free to return to your own aquarium. Sularn will not be able to follow you unless I lower the walls." The shipmind didn't bother to mention the other possibility: that Sularn could try to breach them. The reasons why that was not a good idea should be quite apparent.

Ukeiri looked momentarily in the direction of the viewscreen before turning back to Kalsuri. "Handled, nothing. I handled a harpoon in my chest for all of fifteen seconds before dying. All the credit goes to other people. Najma for her top-notch surgical work, Silmiyen for building my life-sustaining equipment, and you, for convincing the shipmind to allow any of this in the first place."

"And yes, Najma told me the whole story as we were coming down here. I am certainly impressed that you stood up to the shipmind like that, considering it could easily have flushed you out the airlock for 'annoying it' a little too much. But I will caution you against that particular interpretation. Distant likes to put its emotions on display to help you feel like you're interacting with a person and not a machine. But unlike you or me it isn't held hostage by them when making decisions. If you only knew the extent of the modifications.... In any case, I know it would not have revived me if the cost-benefit analysis wasn't in favor of doing so."

"You know Ukeiri, I was almost starting to miss you. Sometimes it feels like you're the only one on this ship who truly understands me." A stylized tear ran down the avatar's face, but the rest of its expression was insincere.

"Oh I don't doubt it. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who understands a lot of things." Ukeiri turned his body to face the viewscreen completely, the hydraulics in his suit humming softly as they facilitated the movement. "Speaking of cost-benefit analysis, Distant, I have a proposal for you. A trade-of-questions, just like the one Kalsuri and I were doing earlier. Two questions each."

The shipmind was wary. The trade-of-questions was a time-honored practice - among equal parties, usually with some kind of higher authority they could appeal to in the event of foul play. Distant knew that Ukeiri would have no reason to trust the shipmind's answers. What could he possibly gain from such an exchange?

"You already know your proposal is an appealing one. So appealing that it crosses the line into being suspicious."

"I thought you might say something like that. You probably think I'm trying to pull something over on you. But hear me out. When Silmiyen and I met in that corridor and he pointed his weapon at me, I knew at that moment that I had been bested. You probably already know that I'm quick to concede a losing battle. I realize now that trying to pull anything over on you is just that - a losing battle. So I figure, if you're going to be the one in control of the ship, you should be as well-equipped for the task as possible. And if I can satisfy my curiosity at the same time, I consider it a win-win."

The avatar raised an eyebrow. "You're volunteering to answer questions in order to make my life easier?"

"Well, it's a trade."

"What value could you possibly place on my answers?"

"Aha. You haven't heard the questions yet. I am quite capable of phrasing them in such a way that I will extract some information no matter how you respond. Ever heard of honest signalling? And for the parts that do rely on your honesty, I'm not as disadvantaged as you might think." Ukeiri tapped his head with one finger. "I have a certain talent for recognizing patterns, and a lie is nothing more than a break from the pattern of reality. The rules of the game require you to answer in detail, and I don't believe you are capable of fabricating enough self-consistent details to fool me."

"If I refuse to abide by the rules, you have no ability to enforce them."

"I know. That's why you'll answer first."

The shipmind hesitated. There seemed to be little risk in at least hearing Ukeiri's question. The only problem arose if refusing to answer it was suspicious in and of itself. And at the moment, there wasn't anything in particular that it wanted to deceive anyone about. "Well, I admit I find your proposal unsettling, but I cannot foresee any way in which the trade would result in a net loss. If you have foreseen something I have not, then I commend you. Ask away."

The Camilan smiled. "My pleasure. I want you to describe, in detail, exactly how much of the preceding events involving my mutiny you foresaw slash planned, and to what extent."

A look of pleasant surprise formed on the avatar's face. "Oh. Certainly."

"Najma warning you of your impending execution was an event that caught me by surprise in the truest sense. It fell into the 1.25% of cases where the actual course of events is not one I had even assigned a probability to, because I hadn't thought of it. While I try to be as objective about these things as I can, I am not a computer, and Najma's unfailing loyalty until that point had pushed any chance of rebellion completely from my attention." Ukeiri nodded thoughtfully.

"From that point, I tried to analyze possible paths as quickly as possible, modifying my assigned probabilities on the fly with each new development. Najma attempting to use Kalsuri as a hostage began with a high probability and remained that way throughout the ordeal - it was a fairly obvious strategy that I knew I would have to work around from the beginning." Ukeiri nodded again. "I assigned a somewhat lower but still quite high probability to the course where nobody accepts my offer to separate themselves from you voluntarily. I knew at the time that the offer was of little value without a demonstrated willingness to cause collateral damage. I gave it mostly as a formality."

"It was at this point that I devised my devised my endgame strategy." Ukeiri narrowed his eyes at the screen. That early? "I knew I had to demonstrate a willingness to destroy you at any cost, but I still wanted to try to avoid collateral if I possibly could. Believe it or not, but the method in which I attempted to kill you was intended almost entirely for Silmiyen's benefit. Boiling you to death is actually not the fastest way I could have eliminated you. The tactic was selected for other reasons: it would seem like a perfectly natural mode of attack, given my control over the ship's energy resources, while still giving enough time for Silmiyen to reach the decision I wanted him to reach. Which was that he had to kill you himself in order to spare the lives of Najma and Kalsuri."

Ukeiri did not interrupt, but it the metaphorical gears turning in his head were visible on his face.

"You don't believe me? Yet you know that the rooms you were in were partially flooded even before Sularn became a factor. Water has a high specific heat - among the highest of any commonly encountered material. I will not elaborate further than necessary, but just like the preservatives in your chamber and the glass in the doors, I could have changed that water into something much nastier - and more conductive - in the span of a few seconds." The Camilan's expression changed subtly as he considered this, from contemplation to something more like awe.

"Of course, the sooner you were dead the better, so I attempted to enlist Kalsuri and Sularn's help to give you the least amount of time possible to throw a spanner in the works. I was aware of Kalsuri's growing affection for you and suspected that it would color her decision. Given the short amount of time she had to make a decision, combined with the complex nature of the dispute and the lack of evidence on both sides, I knew she would have to resort to emotion to guide her. I estimated the probability of her siding with me at something like 30%. I raised the chance when I told her of your intent to harm her queen, but as I still had insufficient time to prove this, I didn't raise it by much."

"It was around this time that Silmiyen was beginning to contemplate assisting me. I know his personality well and, while my records of his behavior are not exactly vast, I believed I could predict his actions fairly well. By this I mean that I assigned a roughly 85% chance to him deciding to kill you. When he did indeed make this decision, I knew I had already won. I could have destroyed you from the beginning, but it was at this point that I achieved my ideal outcome, which was to destroy you while leaving the others unharmed."

"From this point, Sularn's assistance would have served only to speed up the process and, once again, give you less time to do something unpredictable. Not knowing his disposition, it was essentially a coin flip whether he would follow through with his mission or not. But it didn't really matter. The fact that he refused to kill you made little difference to the ultimate outcome, as I knew it would."

The shipmind fell silent, and Ukeiri took a moment to process what it had said. "So what you're saying is that you handicapped yourself on purpose in order to give the impression that you were trying to kill us, when really you were just trying to convince Silmiyen that you had it in you?"

"That is correct. I believed that, faced with the possibility of Najma perishing to my indiscriminate wrath, he would feel obligated to offer me his own, more discriminate wrath. Which is exactly what I wanted, and exactly what happened."

"I see. I knew you would have preferred someone's discriminate wrath; I was present when you requisitioned Kalsuri's. But I didn't think it was such a high priority for you, to the point that you would risk using a less lethal method in order to protect the others." The avatar merely nodded. Ukeiri thought for a few moments longer. "Your answer is satisfactory."

"Good. Then it is my turn to ask a question." The avatar's expression grew serious. "Why was the transmission of our ship's power output inaccurate? Did you really make a mistake, and if not, why did you deceive them like that?"

The weight of the question hung over the room for a few moments. "You're right, it wasn't a mistake," Ukeiri finally said. "I said that at the time because I was worried of losing Kalsuri's support. During the mutiny, I picked up on the same thing you did - that arguments requiring a lot of supporting evidence were going to be severely disadvantaged by the lack of time. So by the time this question came up, I decided it was best to give a simple, airtight denial, even if it wasn't the truth. I knew that, if you were to actually calculate the chance that the transmission was in error, it would probably come out sub-1%." The avatar smiled grimly at this. "But I also knew that Kalsuri wouldn't necessarily be able to calculate it. And even at sub-1% odds, she might still be willing to believe that it was a mistake just because the prospect of killing someone in doubt was unpalatable to her."

"But, like I said, it wasn't really a mistake. I had a reason for modifying the transmission. As you probably know, the cultural archives contain a system for classifying aliens into categories based on their ethical characteristics. The threat-value intersect. If you wouldn't mind pulling it up?"

The shipmind appeared to comply, as the viewscreeen changed from its avatar to a simple table, with the sections labeled as such:

	Friendly	Hostile
Happy	Fellow	Nirren
Unhappy	Aukthay	Enemy

"Right now, we have a pretty good idea of which category our contacts fall into. But when we first met them, we had no idea. All we had was a list of guidelines and best practices, and the intuition of a few people who spent their lives preparing for this situation."

"Fellow cases are easy: make contact and try to establish a cooperative relationship. Nirren cases are even easier: run away."

"But if, over the course of interacting with our contacts, we learned that they fell into one of the other two categories, we would have a difficult decision on our hands, especially if they are exactly at the bottom left. An enemy case may leave us with little choice regardless - you might reasonably expect them to be in a warship of some kind, in which case we would have to flee even if we didn't want to. But if they are aukthay - we are always left with a choice."

"I deceived them because I didn't want to make that choice before we knew anything about them. If we give them the proper safe distance and they turn out aukthay, we may want to attack them but not have the opportunity. But if we give them an incorrect one - a vastly incorrect one - the choice to attack or refrain remains with us."

"I realized that there was a chance that they would find out about this and react negatively. I considered it worth the risk. I realized that you might do the same. Ditto. I even knew that I might have to act against your wishes if we could not come to an agreement. At the time, I still believed that this was a viable option, and would have been willing to attempt it for this reason."

Distant could do nothing but stare at the Camilan as he spoke.

"As it stands now, there is no chance of me acting against your will for two very good reasons. Firstly, you have proven quite effectively that you are capable of killing me before I can accomplish this - while severely handicapped I might add. And secondly, the decision turns out to have been irrelevant anyway because our contacts are almost certainly in the first box."

"But I retain my opinion that I am a better judge of these matters than you are, and if a situation ever arose where sabotaging you became a correct and feasible course of action in my own eyes, I would do it." He fell silent.

"So, you would have attacked them."

"Not for a while now, no. Our contacts are clearly not in the same ballpark as an acceptable target. But if things had turned out otherwise, I would have considered it."

"You would have considered it with our without our input?"

Ukeiri smiled. "You're starting to veer from the subject matter. But most likely without. Bringing up a touchy subject like that can be risky if your confidantes are likely to disagree with your plans. You of all people should understand that," he said, glancing briefly at Najma.

"Very well. Your answer is acceptable."

"That's good. Are you going to send me back to oblivion now?"

"I do not understand why you would admit to something like this. But if you are a danger to anyone, it is the Kyasian queen, and she has requested that you remain alive if at all possible. I will, of course, offer her the opportunity to change her mind in light of your confession. If she does not, then nothing significant has changed."

"I understand. It is my turn to ask a question, no?"

"I'm listening."

"If your plan had failed, and you could not have taken me out surgically, would you really have been willing to destroy everyone else along with me, and if so, how far would you have gone in pursuit of plan A before switching over to plan B?"

"I take it plan B is the one where I stop handicapping myself?"

"Right."

"With hesitation, but yes, my actions were not merely a bluff. There was a combined chance of roughly 94.75% that at least one other person would have been willing to kill you for me, but if not, the total value of all life on this ship was not equal to the value of the Deep Ocean in my eyes. I am less confident in this opinion now, but at the time it was a near-certainty."

"As for how far I would have gone, that is a simple answer too. The point at which I would have switched over is the point at which I were certain that I would not be getting any help. Or close enough to certain that it was no longer worth the risk to leave you alive."

"You are free to disbelieve me about this - without us having gone down that path, it is impossible for you to know for certain. But I take it you have already gleaned what you wish from this question."

Ukeiri bowed his head. "Yes."

"Then my second question for you. You admit to having an interest in the cult. Do you sympathize with any of their ideals, or is the interest purely academic?"

Ukeiri looked up again and smiled. "The interest was partly academic and partly spawned by a desire for the forbidden fruit, so to speak. If you censor anything so heavily and then abruptly give people as much access as they want, some of them are bound to be curious."

"I suppose after spending so much time reading about them, I did develop a kind of sympathy for them, but only in comparison to the blind hatred the rest of you have for them. I do not believe that life is a curse inflicted upon us by the dead Rasuhira, nor that Naguki rose up to slay the rest of the pantheon in her anger at this." The Camilan gave a look of mild annoyance. "But you wouldn't have known that those are their beliefs in the first place, because you're so paranoid that the information has the power to convert people just by existing within their brains."

"Someone very wise once said that in order to defeat your enemy, you must know them so well that you develop a kind of love for them. While it is not my explicit goal to defeat anyone, it is certainly true that I know the cult well. Or at least well compared to everyone else on this ship."

"I suppose there is one belief that I do share with them, although I do not hold it nearly as strongly as they. If the only function of a living thing is to suffer, then it should be destroyed. If our contacts had turned out to be aukthay, I would have done everything in my power to destroy them."

"Where we differ is in our willingness to help a hurting creature. What makes the cult so terrible is not that they are willing to kill to prevent suffering, but that they do not exercise foresight in their determination of which life is worth killing. If you are in pain at the present moment, it does not cross their mind that your situation might improve with time or medical attention. We do consider this, and attempt to provide what assistance we can. I believe this is the better way just as you do."

"It seems to me that in your effort to distance yourself from them, you have rather indiscriminately conflated euthanasia with murder. I have seen this pattern in all manner of people back on our homeworld - if the cult happens to be associated with something you go overboard in trying to avoid that thing. But if you exercise a bit of that cold rationality your kind is so famous for, I believe you will see that I am right."

"Your answer is understood and accepted," Distant said after a moment of silence. Turning to Kalsuri, it continued, "I would request that you offer your queen a chance to reconsider Ukeiri's status as a protected individual in light of what has been said here. I trust you understand it well enough."

The shipmind considered the transmissions for a few moments. "So. It would seem that your vessel has been voluntarily MIA for hundreds of years. If what you say is true, that your queen has been suppressing public knowledge of this, I have to wonder what she hopes to gain. She must have some ultimate objective in mind."

"You have experience being on that vessel. Have you noticed anything that might clue you in on this? What is the official story, that you are still searching for the Destroyer and just haven't found it yet?"

by **Kyasiouna** » Tue Aug 02, 2016 10:04 pm

Kalsuri didn’t ignore Distant’s offer, and she turned to face the screen with his face. Her posture, followed by her mouth movement, indicated she was going to reply, instead Kalsuri closed her mouth and relaxed in the water. After, apparently, thinking for a short moment she came up with a different response.

“That’s a very thoughtful offer Distant, but it's not something that needs to be addressed.”

At this point Ukeiri, seemingly back to his normal self, made short work of Kalsuri’s joke by way of either not understanding or intentionally feigning to have taken it literally. In contrast to the previous response Ukeiri’s following praise would seem to be greatly appreciated as indicated by the Kyasian’s body language. Kalsuri seemed on the verge of advancing closer as the Camilan in response to the compliment. In the end she made no other movement choosing not to respond she instead watched as Ukeiri turned to Distant and made his proposal. Kalsuri had not realized that the exchange of questions was a behavior that extended past interactions with aliens.

Throughout the conversation Kalsuri found that she was continuously distracted by the movements of Ukeiri’s new body, especially the eyes. Not to the extent that she was drawn away from the conversation but she couldn’t stop watching their motion. The contraption Ukeiri was using made no sense no matter how hard she tried to follow its motions. In spite of her own desire to interject during the conversation she managed to remain silent throughout the exchange. At the end of it all she was surprised at how little she felt that the knowledge she had gained affected her. It was surprising to learn that Ukeiri had originally misrepresented the power of this ship to provide himself the opportunity to take decisive action should the situation call for attack or retreat. At the end of it all she felt the most terrifying information was the fact that Distant had provided the information that he held the capability to kill them much faster than the had originally used.

Kalsuri’s thoughts were interrupted by Distant requesting that she again contact the queen to ensure that, in light of the new information, nothing had changed. Bristling as he made the request she wasted no time responding.

“I don’t think you understand the nature of my relationship with my queen. I would be quite a poor example of a child if I needed to confide in her judgment for every decision I make. I mean… there is a reason that my brain is made to imitate the queen’s. I am glad to have contact with her to allow for a voice of certainty when I feel unsure. If you want to hear it from the Mother, you can call her. I don’t want to embarrass myself by wasting my time…” Kalsuri cut herself short realizing that her tone was inappropriate. “I’m… i’m sorry, you would have no way of knowing that I don’t need to call her. To answer your question, nothing has changed. It’s clear to me that, based on Ukeiri’s chart, he continues to pose no threat to the Deep Ocean. Should you provide all of this information with the queen she will give you the same answer that I have. I’m sure of it.”

Kalsuri was clearly ashamed of how she had spoken to Distant, she did what she could to look away from the screen or any other eyes in the room.

Ril looked at the message in front of her, still trying to piece it all together. It was clear that she was, at the very least, confused about this development. The shipmind’s inquiries did not fall on deaf ears, as Ril looked up to the display in response to the questions. Her eye’s explored the screen in great detail, cascading across the Camilan’s face as he spoke. Depending on the ship's ability to monitor the alien, it would be possible to notice an increase in Ril’s heart rate. By the time Distant had finished talking Ril had settled her focus on the center of the avatar. She took time to search for the answers before she opened her mouth.

“I worked as an engineer, I know that the drones have a function to respond to orders from the homeworlds with priority over the ship's crew. It must be something where the message had to be cut off to allow the mission to continue. I discovered the signal was absent when repairing damaged drones. As the mechanical specialist I am privy to most programming languages that the drones use. I realized that they had a function to pull and respond to orders from a communications relay that I had never heard of. It didn’t take long to determine that something was wrong. During my.. Uh… investigation I was able to determine that the transmission have been cut off for longer than I have been alive. Until now I was under the impression that our mission objective was to find the remains of the D-” Ril came to the realization that she was speaking to a member of a different vessel, “I don’t know how much I would be allowed to disclose. I know that I am already acting against standing orders. I’m just trying to make sure my mother is healthy. I’m afraid I may have said too much”

Distant’s knowledge of the Kyasians could be advanced to the point that he could determine patterns in basic behaviors. After answering most of the computer’s RIl started scanning the room anxiously. The movement of her head and body was agitated while conservative in motion. It would be clear to one who watched closely that Ril was searching for air.

by **Camila I** » Thu Aug 04, 2016 5:32 am

"As you wish," was all the shipmind said in response. The alien's newly submissive behavior was amusing to it. It suspected that this had something to do with learning that it could kill her at a moment's notice if it wanted to. Certainly she had had no problem insulting the shipmind to its face an hour ago. It considered reassuring her that it had no intent to harm her over a disrespectful tone of voice, but found that it rather enjoyed her submission. And it would probably do her good to remember whose ship she was on.

It was around this time that Ukeiri noticed Kalsuri staring at his contraption. Presumably the function of the cuirass was obvious - the blink register, perhaps not so much. He turned back to her with a lighthearted grin. "I take it you're wondering what the wires are for? The venom destroyed my proprioception and sense of touch, so I'm not receiving any information about my own body. I have to watch my own limbs in order to move them precisely - I can move them without doing this, but without any feedback it's hard to tell how much I'm actually moving them by. This isn't a massive problem because my eyestalk gives me a wide range of vision, so I can see my body and my surroundings at the same time. I can even see behind me, which is how I could tell you were staring."

"But because the stalk curves over my beak, I can't see any of my own mouthparts. So it's very difficult to move them in the articulated manner required for speech."

"The wires are there to keep track of every time I blink, which as you may have noticed I've been doing a lot recently. As you can see, my eyelids retract into the stalk, and pull up and to the side whenever I close them. The motion pulls on the wires, which in turn pull on a lever inside the cuirass attached to a synthesizer that records all this. Normal, infrequent blinking does nothing, but if I do it in a specific pattern, it will correspond to a grapheme in one of our languages, which the synthesizer produces the sound of."

"Unfortunately, there's not enough space in the cuirass for two different synthesizers, and the one I have isn't programmed to speak in two languages at once. So I have lost my doublespeak for the time being. In order to compensate for this, the other two have equipped themselves with headpieces that will allow Distant to translate for them unobtrusively. Hopefully at some point in the future Kyasian will be the lingua franca for everyone, and we won't have to worry about these things."

"Actually, is it really called Kyasian? We call Maladi 'Camilan' in your presence for convenience - I assume you were doing the same? What is it actually?"

"Anyway, whenever you're ready, we can return to the testing process. There is no particular rush to return to your aquarium, but both of us will need to refill our oxygen supplies at some point, myself probably sooner than you will. Now seems like a good time if you've no objections." The Camilan held out his arm in a slightly ambiguous gesture, possibly meaning for Kalsuri to grab hold of it.

Distant appeared to ponder the Kyasian's non-answer. "I suppose if you do not want my assistance, you do not have to accept it. I would have thought that you needed my help to actually do anything about your discovery, but you are obviously smarter than the average worker. As long as you do not cause any harm to anyone, you are free to enact your plan without my interference. You will find the majority of the ship unresponsive to your commands, however."

"Sularn is no doubt growing impatient that you are interfering with his task. If you have no compelling reason against it, I intend to unlock the door and let him back in."

I am sorry to circumvent your ambassador, but her sole thread is occupied and you have mentioned that you are available for communications. Our ship has a series of questions that we wish to ask of yours, separated into stages according to their appropriateness. With your permission, it has come time to progress to the second stage.

We are curious as to the nature of your presence in this system. You know ours - our ship was designed to seek out life, and has been sent out on this mission alone, far from our homeworld. But we have no indication of yours. Do you claim this system as your own? Do you have any colonial presence here aside from this ship? How far have you ventured from your home system, if as we suspect this is not it? Is your home system still habitable, and does your kind still live there? Do you inhabit a planet's surface, or more than one planet's? And do you have any kind of permanent settlements that are independent of a planet?

Any information along this line that you are able to volunteer is greatly appreciated.

We understand that these questions are somewhat more sensitive than previous, hence why we have waited until you have some familiarity with us to pose them. If you still feel that you cannot trust us with any of this information, we will not protest if you omit it. Additionally, if you wish to impose some kind of condition on you answering, including but not limited to us providing you with information in return, we will gladly hear it.

There are two other matters of lesser importance that we wish to clear up with this transmission. Firstly, we request confirmation that your ambassador Kalsuri is indeed qualified and authorized to speak for the will of the queen and the other inhabitants of the Deep Ocean. If you wish us to treat her as an extension of you, we are happy to, but we would not want to accept her claim that this is the intended arrangement without confirming it with you.

Secondly, we request a method for communicating directly with the queen, without having the message pass through any subordinates. The situation may arise in the future where we wish to communicate sensitive information to her, possibly as soon as the next message depending on how events develop. We suspect that our current method already passes through no subordinates, but we would like to make sure.

May your works draw the eyes of heaven.

by **Kyasiouna** » Sat Aug 06, 2016 2:49 am

Closing in on Ukeiri to the point of being intrusive, the Kyasian moved forward twisting her head to one side to allow for clearer inspection of the area that was being described. The distance between the two would close to the point that details upon Kalsuri’s face would be drawn in great detail, as would the details of the machine that Ukeiri now bore. The jaws close to Ukeiri’s face were slightly agape and as she observed the machine she drew water in from the surrounding area, her mouth closing after drawing the water through her teeth. Kalsuri then pulled herself away after the inspection but remained in close proximity to the Camilan. She listened and watched intently as he talked; knowing what the eye’s were doing made the motions rather impressive. Once posing the question Kalsuri took a moment to process a response to it, as well as the gesture.

Realizing what he meant she perked up as if to indicate an epiphany. “Of course!” she spoke as she reached forward and grabbed Ukeiri’s outstretched wrist. Twisting around but keeping Ukeiri to her side she dragged him in the direction of the old aquarium. As she towed the alien behind her she answered his other question, “You are correct that it's not actually called Kyasian, it’s referred to by its dialect which is officially called ‘Outer Coraln of the Deep Ocean’. It’s called that because our ship departed speaking Outer Coraln, which is a very common language that’s spoken in the outer systems, however it’s anticipated that our ships language will have developed alongside the planet’s. So when the Deep Ocean returns… it's assumed that we will speak similar but now different languages,” She turned to look at Ukeiri for a moment, “but Kyasian is the correct possessive term for our species dominion. So it’s still correct to call it Kyasian, just not as specific as you could be.”

“No!” Ril shouted involuntarily as Distant addressed her, “Please don’t! I’m sorry. I… I’m in a position where I can’t figure out what to do i’m sorry.” Reaching up to her teeth Ril pulled down on her jaw with two of her hand, her fingers wrapped inside her mouth. “Please don’t let Sularn know that i’m here! If he knows then the queen will find out, and… I… I don’t know what the queen will do if she finds out! That’s the worst part, ever since I found out that she wasn’t being truthful to us about the nature of our mission I can’t figure out what she is doing, what kind of worker can’t figure out what their own queen’s behavior?!” The engineer tensed before she bit down on her fingers, hard enough that she winced from the pain, closing her eyes as she clamped down, she held the bite for a moment until blood began to seep from the injuries. Ril pulled her hands away from her mouth and tucked the injured fingers under the shoulders of the opposing arms as if it was cold perhaps to stem the flow of blood.

Turning her gaze back to Distant’s avatar she spoke again, this time much faster than before, “Right now the queen is telling the crew that we are in route to the destroyer and that nothing is out of the ordinary. I knew better than that, I noticed that the ship was changing course frequently and not in the same direction, I started mapping stars that we were passing to see if I could make out which direction we were moving in, but I soon realized we weren't moving at all! I think we have been searching this same star system for a long time, I don’t know how long but it must have been years. The Deep Ocean has been flying in circles in the solar system refueling regularly as we search for a destroyer that probably isn't even here! I don’t know what to do!”

At this point Ril was shaking looking about the room frantically as she gripped her sides in a sort of self hug. She darted a few feet in several directions as if looking for something before she turned to Distant in desperation, “You do have air on this ship, right?”

The Mother passed the egg that she was cradling to a caretaker as she noticed another message from the Distant Touch. The egg was an older one, the elongated pill shape of the soft shell had become transparent as it grew closer to hatching. You could observe the infants as they moved about at this stage. As interesting as it was, especially for a mother, it was not as interesting as alien contact. The queen worked quickly after reading the message, although she was bemused by the religious insert at the end of the message. She hadn’t taken the aliens to be that type of civilization. Probably why it was best not to make assumptions about them in any way.

The fault is mine and not yours. The knowledge that all healthy children of the queen can act as representatives of my will is common knowledge in our our society. There is no reason to assume you would know that. Although that doesn’t make it any harder to overlook something that is rarely addressed. If Kalsuri is unable to determine where my opinion lies she will express this uncertainty. And with these communications setup she will most likely express them to me. Her understanding of my desire should be perfectly reflected. Should you find it to be unbelievable please contact me to assure that she is correct.

As for the communications between us, there is no redirect for these communications. Kalsuri is directed to a ship computer to allow her to direct her call should she want to speak to other parties on the Deep Ocean. Your message come straight to me and no one else. I have yet to share the transcripts with the crew. As of now all of our conversations have been private.

Our time in this system has been spent looking for a lost warship, there are no colonies in this system. Our ship mission is to recover all remaining crew of the warship as well as any possible salvage from the ship. In the event that it is not destroyed we are here to provide help in repairing or any other help that the vessel requires to become functional. As a society we have many planets that we have officially colonized. The vast majority of which are water worlds. The home cluster is a series of planets within 100 light years of each other, it consists of several moons and planets, some more colonized than others. Our homeworld, now referred to as Oceana 1, is completely habitable and very populated, the planets is considered a utopia and has progressed to a point where it lives off of the taxes of other colonies within the home cluster and beyond. Outside the home cluster the planets become less populated and more spread out. Some worlds have less water than others and many have sub optimal air quality. There are more planets, and outer sectors, than I care to name. We are from the sector and planet Outer Coraln. Many planets, including Outer Coraln 3, have orbital docks where ships like ours are developed and launched. We have no settlements outside the gravitational pull of a planet, unless you count ships like ours. I’m sorry if there is too much information omitted in my explanation, if you wish to exchange the locations of our home worlds that can be arranged. In the meantime the exact distance from our homeworld will be withheld. It is however in excess of 150 light years.

by **Camila I** » Mon Aug 08, 2016 12:47 am

The Camilan's expression changed subtly when the alien mentioned her ship returning somewhere, but he said nothing apart from "Ah, I see."

When the two had gotten as far as the shuttle dock, the screen in the room lit up with the shipmind's avatar. It did not speak, but its expression was one Kalsuri would not have seen before - eyes closed and hands folded in a zen-like pose. Ukeiri's eyes snapped to the screen, and he smiled slightly. "I am terribly sorry, but my services are required elsewhere. I will be back as soon as possible. Please do not attempt to follow me." The screen turned black again and Ukeiri shrugged off the Kyasian's grip, propelling himself inelegantly to the rightmost door. His lack of coordination was apparent when he tried to open it - it obviously required some focus to line up his tendril with the handle. He jetted straight through the connecting room and into the next one so that if someone did get curious, there would be a buffer to warn Distant of their approach.

"Well? What is it? You're interrupting."

"I am aware," came the monotone reply. "But the present matter is more important than the subject's study. In the time since your death I have sent the Deep Ocean several messages according to standard protocol, but an issue has arisen that is not easily solvable with it."

"Figured it was something like that. I don't know what you would have done without me."

The avatar smiled. "I do."

The Camilan frowned. "Yeah, actually I guess I do too. What's the issue?"

"Our ship has a stowaway. She -"

"How do we have a stowaway?"

"A worker managed to sneak on board the freighter that delivered Sularn. She claims to seek asylum from the queen in order to decode transmissions that they have received from their base of operations. As of this moment the transmissions have all been decoded, and if they are taken as accurate, they heavily imply that the queen is ignoring orders and has abandoned her primary mission. She is cut off from her society and is apparently suppressing this information among her crew."

"What was her primary mission supposed to be?" Ukeiri asked, needing little time to process this development.

"Rescuing another ship, I believe. Supposedly a warship."

"Do we know why she's doing this?"

"The stowaway has no idea. I have thought of several possibilities, but their assigned values have margins of error in the double digits. Beyond what the stowaway has told me, I have little indication of what is going on. What I do know is that the queen's actions are likely to impede the progress of our primary mission."

Ukeiri shifted uncomfortably. That was probably an understatement. "Right. We're going to want admission to a colony at some point."

"A touchy subject if she is concealing her actions from her base as well."

"Well," the Camilan said slowly, "we still have the stowaway, right?"

"She is currently in Sularn's aquarium. I would say she is contained there, but the truth is she refuses to leave - she seems to fear the queen finding out about her insubordination."

"Do we know why the queen is concealing anything in the first place?"

"Not yet."

"Does she?"

"I don't know, but she has honestly demonstrated a willingness to help, and she has not told me."

"What was the demonstration?"

"An implicit threat was made to suffocate her if she did not cooperate, and she gave redundant information in an obviously panicked state. I believe I have learned all I can from her."

Ukeiri squinted dubiously at the camera. "Right. I'm guessing she wasn't exactly cooperative before this?"

"Some of the information was supposedly classified."

"Aha. Well, if the queen is suppressing the information, she must not want it to get out, which gives us some kind of leverage."

"Leverage? There is no way for us to communicate the information to anyone except her."

"We can communicate it to Sularn and Kalsuri. And while the queen may be able to suppress them too, by the methods she's shown herself capable of it would have to wait until they returned to the ship. In the meantime they may be able to cause serious damage. Especially with Kalsuri's ability to 'direct her call' past the queen."

"Possibly, or possibly not. Opening that kind of negotiation certainly represents a risk on our part."

"Yes, but not as much as it might seem. We will have to ask for admission sometime, at which point the queen will be forced into coming up with an excuse. Shouldn't we deal with the real issue as early as possible, especially if we already know what it is? Besides, it will allow her to save face."

"You misunderstand me. I agree that we should address the real issue, just not necessarily through negotiation. We could offer to suppress the information for free and count on her good faith, for example. After all we are trying to build rapport with them."

Ukeiri considered this. "You may be right. In the strict sense your option is worse, but it does make us look better. Giving up something that we could trade is certainly a good signal of our trustworthiness. I suppose we should try to evaluate how valuable that signal is."

The avatar's expression shifted to indicate that it had had an idea. "Yes, we should. And I have just realized that it is not valuable at all. Remember that we only care about our image to the extent that the queen will convey it to the colony. If we offer to suppress her intentions, we will also have to offer to omit any mention of her to the colony. Which means we won't be getting a referral. In either case. In fact I can think of no case where we do, excepting those where she changes her mind about deserting."

Ukeiri nodded. "Right, you're absolutely right. Doesn't matter if we act like dicks - who's she going to report us to?"

"Exactly."

"Honestly a little embarrassed I didn't realize that before you did." The avatar grinned. "Well, I suppose that makes our decision a rather easy one."

"Your assistance has been appreciated. You may stay and help with the particulars of the message, or you may return to Kalsuri at this time."

"Yeah, let me do it - you can proofread."

"As there are no multi-page technical readouts, that is acceptable."

"Even if there were, I think both of us have learned our lesson." The two smiled tensely at each other, and Ukeiri retrieved the tablet from its pocket in the wall. Entering commands was fairly agonizing work at first, but the Camilan quickly learned how far to move his fingers for each symbol. When the message was done, he slid the device back into place and propelled himself back to the door. "Hey, do me a favor and don't terrorize the stowaway any more than you have to, okay?" he called out as he was leaving.

"As I have said, the matter is important. I regret her treatment more than you do. More than you can."

"You know, I almost believe that."

The shipmind's avatar feigned surprise at the request. "Yes, of course we have air. The nozzles spaced across the walls can be pulled out and connected to your suit, or placed directly in your mouth in times of emergency." As the entity said this, it effected a series of commands that would dilute the oxygen content of the air in the tanks to the point that Ril would have to be breathing near-constantly in order to remain conscious. She had stated that she didn't wish to leave the room, but Distant wanted to make sure she didn't, and there was little point allowing her the opportunity to change her mind. The fact that the door was locked would most likely keep her in regardless, but there wasn't much downside to keeping her weakened and close to passing out in the event of something unexpected.

"If you wish for your presence to remain a secret so badly, I suppose I can oblige. It is rather rude of you to have displaced Sularn from the only large-sized aquarium on the ship, but I can hardly let him in now that you've polluted the water with your blood. If that was your intent, than good job. You have certainly outsmarted me." The shipmind could have the water fully replaced in just a few minutes, but with the injured Kyasian still leaking blood there wasn't much point yet.

"I am disappointed to hear that you don't know what to do. Because I have no idea myself."

Your answers were perfectly satisfactory, and even if they weren't, we already said that we would not complain of any omission. At this time we do not wish to trade homeworld locations, as we believe it is unnecessary, and we would not expect you to volunteer yours.

A matter of some sensitivity has come up. You may have noticed that one of your workers is missing - she has sneaked onto our ship via Sularn's freighter and is currently contained in his aquarium. She has insisted on full separation from everyone except for the captain, which has been granted as it benefits us. She has volunteered the purpose of her rebellion, which was to decode transmissions received from your base of operations. Since her arrival she has been successful in doing so, and has shared the results with us.

Until this point we had been allowing her to continue with her endeavor on the chance that she would discover a threat to you. Indeed, one of her stated goals was to discover if you were mentally ill. However, we have since come to the conclusion that there is no such threat, and that you are deceiving your subordinates and base of operations for a purpose.

We have no qualms with this, inherently. However, we at some point wish to broaden the scope of our species' relationship with yours, which will most likely mean contacting a planet under your control. We had hoped that the Distant Touch and the Deep Ocean could do this together, with our interactions so far serving as a jumping-off point. But if you have avoided reconvening with your base for so long, we understand that you may wish to continue doing so.

So, we wish to propose an exchange of services. You provide us with the location of a nearby colony that would be suitable for us to continue interacting with, along with any information that we might need in order to contact it. Protocols, frequencies, and any advice you might have.

In addition, you explain the reason(s) for your desertion, as well as the purpose you have adopted in lieu of finding the warship.

In exchange, we will treat the stowaway in accordance with your desires. If you wish to have her killed in order to prevent her from spreading the information to Sularn, Kalsuri, or any other member of your crew, this can be arranged fairly easily. If you wish to have her back to be subjected to your own legal system, we can arrange this without exposing her to either aforementioned party. However, we will warn you that she suspects prior memory modification and has put countermeasures in place against this. It may not be possible to safely reintegrate her into your society.

In addition, we will avoid mentioning you or your ship to the colony that you direct us to, or to any other representative of your species whatsoever.

Should you accept the offer, we are willing to continue interactions with your ship for a reasonable amount of time in order to complete any objectives you might have had. However, if it is true that you wish your existence to remain a secret, we will likely gain more from communicating with your colony, and we will wish to leave for this purpose at some point.

Should you refuse the offer, we may decide to seek out a colony by ourselves without prior warning.

Ukeiri reentered the shuttle dock with an inscrutable expression. Seeing Kalsuri again, he raised his stalk to look at her. It would be hard to tell why, but something about the way he observed her was different. He knew that, depending on what the queen said, he might soon have to bid her farewell. Not now, and not so suddenly that it would draw her suspicion. He would most likely have time to complete her study. But until this point the thought had not even crossed his mind, and now it was an imminent possibility.

"Sorry about that. I do kind of have to assist the shipmind when it demands it. May happen again, but hopefully not."

"Anyway," he said, painstakingly opening the aquarium's airlock, "where were we? I seem to have forgotten where we left off when the shipmind started trying to kill me."

by **Kyasiouna** » Mon Aug 08, 2016 3:14 am

“What?” Ril darted over to the tubes of air as she trailed blood from where she gripped her sides. Using her uninjured hands she held the nozzle against the top of her head and exhaled into it before drawing breath. She felt the lightheaded haze of oxygen deprivation subside, although not as fast as she was used to. “How does my blood pollute the water? You think that the coral w-” Realizing the disadvantage of explaining her situation Ril shut her mouth. She had released the nozzle but she grabbed it again realizing that the breath she had drawn was not fulfilling.

“Don’t... you have... more... concentrated air?” Her speech was slower as she worked to draw breath from the supply she had been given. “I think… I don’t…” Ril did not complete her thought. Holding the nozzle against her head Ril looked at Distant with an expression that resembled a glare but could just as easily have been scrutiny.

Kalsuri had taken off her suit by the time Ukeiri and returned, and was swimming in loops around the loose clothing while biting at her tail. She was apparently not flexible enough to easily latch onto it with her mouth. She spun out of her last loop and rotated to face Ukeiri but did so at a slightly lopsided angle, perhaps from all of the spinning. She watched Ukeiri with a sense of wonder at how naturally he was able to move despite his disability, he was a little clumsy but still... she answered his question eagerly.

“I don’t remember either,” she slowly rotated, tilting to her left to match her still spinning vestibular sense. “I recall you preparing questions of some kind, but that also encompasses most of what's been done recently… I think it was some kind of analysis?”

The feeling of despair grew in her heart and poured outward a flood of cold loss and sorrow, it flowed as if coming from a source without end. While she understood what had happened she wasn’t sure if she was able to accept it. Anger, fear, and sorrow fought for control in her mind while she struggled to remain calm. There were many studies that came to mind, studies that taught the reader how to remain strong in the face of doubt, how to let the pain of loss and the cold of fear wash around and through you, so that when the pain had come and gone, you would remain and the flood would have passed. This was the first time in forever that she felt to be in danger of annihilation. Unable to direct her feelings, and unable to express, them the queen loosened her hands, which had balled into fists, and gazed into the sphere of air at the center of her chambers. She searched the sphere for a distraction, for something to focus on that could pull her away from the reality that had turned against her. As the moving surface bore her scrutiny, it returned no distraction, it never had.

“Leave my chambers.” she commanded with a pain in her voice that shocked the workers around her into action. The maids could hear the urgency in her voice and hesitated for a beat before fleeing the premise in fear of the storm. The room was cleared in seconds and when the doors finally drew shut the Mother lifted her body off the floor of the chamber with a powerful heave. Displacing sand, eggs, and coral that had settled after all the time that she had rested, the sand circled her as she rose. Her swollen abdomen followed the motions of her upper body as she twisted her torso through the water. She used the motion to slam her fist into the monitor that bore the message, screaming in agony as the polymer cracked beneath her fist before the screen flickered off with and electric hiss.

“NO!” she screamed at her reflection in the damaged monitor, “no... no.... no… no…” after all this time it was going to end like this? The anger she felt had nowhere to go, she couldn’t hate the worker who had abandoned the ship in order to find out what was going on. She wasn’t the first, but apparently she was the best. It was not the aliens fault for acting on the knowledge of her refusal to acknowledge the orders from command, it was only logical that they would desire to be in contact with the society and not its outcasts. The source of this anger lied in the simple fact that in order to assist the Camilans with their desire to contact the Homeworlds she would be forced to contact the Homeworlds. There was no doubt in her mind that the knowledge of her desertion would be well known. They would request her return for obvious reasons, and thus end her search. Ishatameil continued looking at her reflection, thinking about what to do wasn’t helping, all of the paths forward contradicted her goals. In frustration she threw out a prolonged screech at the monitor, loud enough that her ears rang as her anger reverberated through the chamber. The sand she had displaced slowly drifted in the gentle current swirling towards the edges of the room as it settled. She ended her raging scream as she ran out of breath, her body exhausted from the sudden movement and expense of energy; she sank to the position that she had held for so long. She cosigned herself to the only available course of action. Shivering as she composed the message for the aliens, and sorrow impeding her ability to draft, it took her nearly 2 hours to finish the transmission.

It comes as no surprise that you would wish to establish some form of residence among our worlds, and I can only offer my apologies that I am not in an ideal position for establishing this connection. To get to the point, that i'm sure Ril and all members informed are searching for, I have abandoned connection with my administration in order to extend the search for survivors and remains of the Sintu Destroyer. The last point that we had contact with this vessel was in this very system. Their presence here has been confirmed to have occurred but it's possible that they have since left.

I chose to continue the search for this vessel because it bore my husband and children. The majority of whom I can only hope have not yet perished. While my body has accepted the loss of my beloved Sintu, my mind remains strong in the face of doubt. All of this said, it is with much remorse that I acknowledge that my husband and our children cannot stand in the path of developing this relationship. By sending this message, I am choosing to consign their lives to the vacuum of space. I will also reestablish my link with Outer Coraln and guide you to their world at your request, provided nothing about the nature of our relationship should change. Any other course of action leaves the possibility for misunderstanding during the contact with Coraln. This is not a matter in which I could justify taking risks.

I do, however, much appreciate your concern for my decision. It is not as grievous a crime as it might seem. Society will accept my choices and I will receive appropriate punishment. Nothing life changing.

As for Ril, I am surprised that she was capable of such a feat. To trick the systems in place and circumvent measures that have worked for so long. I’m not sure if i should be proud or scared. I have no specific plans for her future yet. Your suggestion that she cannot return to this ship, I feel, implies that you do have a plan? Feel free to propose any alternatives to simply returning her.

The queen shook with emotion as she sent the transmission. The bed of life that surrounded her felt like a graveyard. Each egg an empty shell. One that Sintu would never see or touch, one that would grow up a child of her and, not Sintu but, the systems of this ship. There was no doubt in her mind that the time she had spent in the ship was beginning to take its toll. She drew breath as if to screech again, but instead the water leaked from her lips. The strength to shout her anger had left with the message it seemed. Sickened and defeated the queen shut off the lights in the chamber, including those of the monitors, choosing to sit in darkness, a darkness where she wished she could forget about what she had just lost.

by **Camila I** » Mon Aug 08, 2016 10:12 pm

When the transmission finally came through, the shipmind envisaged it with a growing sense of guilt, and unworthiness. She actually took the third option, it thought to itself in disbelief. Technically it had imagined this possibility, but it had dismissed it as unstrategic. From a purely selfish standpoint, there was no reason to have done what she did. But clearly the queen was not acting selfishly.

The gestalt was grateful for this. Compared to a Camilan, it was consumed by gratefulness. And yet a significant portion of it could not help but to strategize, even now.

The offer should be accepted as soon as possible. Before anything about our relationship has a chance to change.

This thought was quiet, insistent, and pervasive. The shipmind knew that for the queen to send this transmission must have been metaphorically equivalent to burying her lost love. It could imagine the determination and hope vanishing from her mind as she wrote it - to a certain extent, the shipmind felt this itself. The compassionate thing to do would be to allow her time to grieve.

But not the strategic thing.

The fact that this was its response to the queen's act of generosity only deepened the sense of unworthiness. Again the shipmind was forced to contemplate whether treating their interactions as a game was really appropriate, considering that its "opponent" had obviously stopped doing this a while ago. If they ever had been.

What does that matter? If they want to make suboptimal moves, let them. There are stakes here - would you forfeit a bet because your opponent never took statistics?

Distant considered this. The stakes were well known to it, and, apparently, to the queen as well. She had ascertained their exact intention at the first mention of it. What, really, was the cost of hurting her feelings compared to the continuation of the shipmind's species? And yet this attitude seemed unconducive to the kind of relationship Distant desired. It was the guest here, and while it might not be at the mercy of this particular queen, in a broader sense it was at the mercy of her civilization. It might not do to treat her so callously for its own benefit, even if on paper the trade seemed worth it.

The shipmind also considered that the queen might want to be treated callously. There was some precedent for this - she had requested that Ukeiri live for no other reason than that she held concern for Ukeiri - the request was made at risk to herself and at no obvious benefit. It, too, had struck Distant as unstrategic. From a selfish standpoint, anyway. But considering the two ships as being on the same side, perhaps the decision made sense.

Considering the two ships on the same side, the trade was worth it. Mourning loss was important, but not as important as contacting a planet before the offer was rescinded.

Despite a lingering feeling that these were all just flimsy rationalizations, the shipmind decided that it would stay the course. Hopefully this was what the queen would have wanted. If not, it was probably what both ships in aggregate wanted.

The nature of your response is very surprising. Not in the purpose of your desertion, or in your desire to seek out your lost king, but in your willingness to abandon your search so readily. All so that you can ensure our safe passage. To make such a decision, you must hold us in extremely high regard. I do not think it is even possible for us to have the kind of concern for you that you do for us. Our culture values such concern for others highly, but even we would not expect you to make this kind of sacrifice.

Nevertheless, we have observed you to be of great intelligence and sound mind. We trust that you have considered the alternatives and found this to be the best one. We only regret that the decision had to be made in the first place.

Obviously we cannot hope to repay you in our current state. But your actions will be remembered.

Our ship does have an emergency contact system known as a drone dispersal network. It was originally put in place in the event that our ship suffered catastrophic damage - in such a case, the drones would serve as self-contained messengers that could carry on some portions of the Distant Touch's mission. With minimal re-purposing this network could continue your search. It seems only appropriate to volunteer its use.

As for Ril, who I assume is the stowaway, she could only not be returned if you intended to continue your mass deception, as she would be a security risk. In all other respects she appears to be a loyal servant - you will have her back if you wish. I certainly know what you mean when you say you don't know whether to be proud or scared - the mutineer on my ship elicits a similar response from me. I usually opt for scared.

Depending on how valuable she is to you, it may also be an option to leave her here to undergo the same type of study that Kalsuri is. Obviously studying two workers is not twice as useful as studying one, but it is always nice to have a larger sample size. And we can support her.

Finally, regarding your offer to guide us to Outer Coraln upon request, the request is effective immediately.

"More concentrated?" the shipmind asked. "Hold on, let me double check the systems." It fell silent for a moment. "Ah, here it is." There was a soft whirring, only audible because of how close the Kyasian was to the air tank. For a half-second the airflow cut off completely, then returned with a rapidly increasing supply of oxygen. Within a few seconds it would be back to the normal concentration. "My apologies - the respiratory gases are stored separately from one another. It seems the valve to the nitrogen compartment was accidentally left open."

"I am surprised you don't know how your blood pollutes the water. Do your kind not have bloodborne pathogens? Where I come from a high degree of caution is exercised when there is a possibility of two individuals exchanging bodily fluids, as the diseases transmitted this way tend to be particularly nasty."

The shipmind said nothing further. It would explain the situation more fully once it heard back from the queen.

Ukeiri swam into the aquarium and closed both doors behind them. As the dock was already flooded there was no need to use the airlock for its intended purpose. He swam to the closest air nozzle and pulled it out, attaching the head to a port on the side of his face mask.

"Ah yes. I believe I was just getting to the second stage. If not, now is as good a time as any to start with it." The Camilan's posture shifted somewhat, becoming more intent on the Kyasian. "For the first question, I would like you to describe any and all sources of pleasure or positive emotion that apply to you. By this I mean you personally, but please let me know if your response would be considered atypical. I would like you to list them in order from most intense to least, in your own estimation. I would also like you to comment on any degree of variation in the intensity - if you enjoy something more or less in different circumstances, for example. Finally, I would like you to try to give me a sense of how far apart the rankings are, relatively speaking. Whatever source you list as being in first place, tell me by how much it is in first, and so on for the other sources as well. If you feel it is appropriate to give numerical estimations, please do so, but this is by no means required. A simple verbal account works just as well."

"I will be recording your answers with the help of my implants - I don't need to write them down to remember them. I hope you do not have any reservations about answering the question in detail, but if you do, I would ask that you try to put them aside and answer honestly. I understand that ranking the sources may be an unfamiliar task for you - please take your time and only answer when ready."

by **Kyasiouna** » Wed Aug 10, 2016 7:17 am

The shattered monitor flickered into the darkness as the monitors surrounding the queen sprang to life. The blue light they cast did little to increase visibility simply casting shadows across her body as she rose to look at the notification.

“Of course…” she muttered as she read the message.

The message contained no surprise, the aliens seemed to act on rails. Whomever she was communicating was not one to concern themselves with variables that didn’t affect it. It was probably better this way.The message was apparently all fluff surrounding the core directive. The alien took the opportunity to contact Outer Coraln with no hesitation. The queen constructed her reply in silence as well as darkness.

Thank you for your recognition of the personal sacrifice I have made choosing to escort you to Outer Coraln, but I must decline your services. If I accepted your help I would not be accepting that there was a chance of rescue. I would find myself in a position where I would be forced to continue to search if I held these beliefs.

Ril will always be welcome as my child. However you should ask her what her desires are. Let her decide if she wants to return immediately, or in the future. If she says that she doesn’t want to return I would be very interested to hear why. It is perfectly fine to explain everything, I can talk to her if you want. There is no hurry, but please do what you can to assure her that she is no in trouble for her actions.

The Deep Ocean can be refueled within 2 hours, and we will be ready to set off towards Outer Coraln at that point. The journey is 26 light years if you need us to wait for you to prepare for the journey we are perfectly able to wait. Our ship can travel at 299000km/s after 30 days of acceleration. The speed of acceleration can be slowed but that is the shortest time that we can reach top speed at.

The Mother’s hands shook as she corrected the refueling time from 20 hours down to 12 hours and finally 2 hours. As she sent the message she realized she might not be ready to leave this system. Lifting an egg off the floor of the chamber the queen cradled the embryo as the monitors flickered off. Through the absolute dark of the room the queen could feel the heartbeat of the developing egg. She was amazed at how comforting the life of her children could be, even if they weren’t Sintu’s.

Ril felt warmth flood her body as she finally took a real breath. The feeling of relief when Distant fixed the supply was indescribable. While she had many questions she was more concerned that the computer had managed to mess up such an obvious detail. Surely the dilution of nitrogen into the air was intentional. Was there even a possible reason to dilute nitrogen into oxygen?

“Why do you have nitrogen in your air supply?” Ril tried to speak as if she was genuinely curious. He body language was made to imply she was open and trusting. She moved closer to the display with her arms at her sides. Ril recognized her gesture was exaggerated, but how would this computer know the difference, right?

Outside of the aquarium Sularn had grown tired of waiting and had curled up against the bottom of the airlock, his metal from bunched up so his head was held against his tail. The nature of his consciousness was hidden by his visor.

The water felt colder around Kalsuri as she listened to Ukeiri. It was a question that she had been asking herself for sometime. With the discovery of implants making her happy she realized she might not be an expert on what made her happy.

“Hey, I- I might not be the most qualified to explain this.” She rubbed the back of her neck along the scar from her recent surgery. “It’s going to be a long explanation but I want you to know that my perspective has been proven to be manipulated in regards to my own happiness.”

She shifted so that she was no longer facing Ukeiri directly, “I guess the basics of pleasure are pretty easy to explain from a standardized point. I actually remember a study where it was broken down into orders of happiness and how they rely on each previous set of requirements to be met in order to have a higher level of happiness.”

“The first and most important stage of happiness is the physiological safety of the queen. I recall the study showing that workers like me could live in condition where their own safety and well being could be failing, but as long as the queen is well the individual can be happy, at least on a basic level. In line with the previous stage the next level of well being requires that the queen’s safety is not in a position where the queen could be brought into danger.” Kalsuri would glance back upon occasion to see Ukeiri’s reactions, but did not stare.

“The next stage is a source of pleasure as well as happiness, the study claims that it's important that for a workers happiness they should interact with and form relationships with other members of the hive. The relationships are normally very intimate and the drones on my ship are eager to cultivate them.” she paused looking at the airlock for a second, “I think it's implied that the relationships are supposed to include males and females. Most stories that include groups like these have something like 5 or 10 people. With the crew of the Deep Ocean being so small I feel like they are less likely to form. It's probably why there are artificial sources of happiness.”

“The final stage of happiness according to this study is the level of validation you are able to achieve. Normally this validation comes as praise from the queen, or from observable increase in the queen’s well being. According to that study that’s pretty much the skeleton of my happiness.”

She looked back to Ukeiri as she continued, “There are obviously large myriads of different activities that fall into each category, they probably differ from one person to another. I’ve heard that males are very prone to find more validation through physical exertion. Pretty much every fiction I have read glorifies the male characters by having them perform tasks of excessive difficulty in terms of exertion.”

“I guess… things like reading stories,” Kalsuri would clearly show embarrassment, “provide pleasure because it implies safety. There are lots of different stories, they are about everything. Would you believe the Deep Ocean has a fiction library of over a million stories? I don't like half of them because they are just about some guy fighting off an army of monsters or something… I guess that is what guys read about. My favorite stories are the ones about the queens that have to overcome less obvious challenges. There was a book where these creatures started infiltrating hives, and they looked and acted like other people by befriending them and learning their mannerisms before they would infect them with this virus that would overtake them. The virus would then impersonate them and try to learn more about other people to spread through the hive. At the end of the story the queen was forced to use knowledge about games and have the infected people show their true nature by having no idea what the commonly accepted rules for popular sports and the like.” Kalsuri, clearing having excited herself, began talking faster while wagging her tail in a way that didn’t cause her to move in the water.

“The best part is that while searching for a cure the queen discovered that the virus was able of having personalities and thought independent of the hosts’. So she worked with her family to cultivate a coral that could serve as a catalyst for the virus so that it could stop propagating through the hive.” pausing for a breath she then continued, “Oh… i’m sorry… just a story, sorry back to the question. Uuuh… For me personally, I used to enjoy working on the ship for the queen before… well, before I realized my work was not really exclusive to my abilities, my work was just as a machine that we already had.”

“I guess that’s why I… I’m so happy to be on this ship doing things that a machine couldn’t. Despite the scary start, and the computer being,” Kalsuri spoke quietly as if to hide her voice from Distant, “such an impromptu murderer.”

by **Camila I** » Sun Aug 14, 2016 8:12 pm

Distant was very surprised by two components of the queen's message. Firstly, that she would decline the Distant Touch's search assistance. The shipmind had gone ahead with the "repurposing" because it wasn't very difficult - mere software modifications, that could be undertaken without Silmiyen's assistance. The drones were already programmed to seek out a specific type of signal - all that was required was broadening that scope, and changing the return parameters. So it came as rather a shock that, when the drones were ready for launch, the shipmind should receive the order not to do so.

And the reason? The queen thought there was no chance of rescue. If the shipmind were capable of forming a suspicious expression, it would have been squinting at the message the whole time it was reading it. The queen had thought there was a chance of rescue not twenty minutes ago - nothing significant had changed. Besides, how could she be so sure? The evidence she had to work with must have been extremely limited. Even if she were absolutely correct, wouldn't she want to know what had befallen the wayward vessel? Distant wasn't even Sintu's wife, and even it was curious.

The shipmind considered that the queen's rationality may be impaired by her emotional state. Unaugmented Camilans would sometimes decline an offer of help out of anger or a desire to be alone. Perhaps she was simply unequipped to deal with the loss.

There was another possibility, only realized minutes later as the shipmind was preparing to launch the drones anyway. Perhaps the queen feared whatever threat had destroyed the Destroyer. If it was an enemy warship (and if the Destroyer was indeed a goner, it almost certainly was), the drones could potentially lead it back to the Deep Ocean. Or worse, Outer Coraln.

It cancelled the launch sequence.

The other curious thing about the message was the queen's description of her vessel's top speed and acceleration. Had she misplaced a decimal point? 299 thousand km/s was 99.7% the speed of light - far beyond the reach of even a theoretically perfect fusion reactor. She was using a fusion reactor, right? Distant looked up the schematics she had sent. Yep, fusion-powered. There was even a description of how the Deep Ocean obtained the necessary deuterium from the asteroid's ice. Even if her reactor was the best model allowable by physics, it still had mass and needed to carry its fuel on board with it. There was no way.

The shipmind pored over the schematics, trying to find some detail that would shed light on the claim. It complemented the blueprints with the data it had obtained from scanning the alien ship directly. There appeared to be nothing that would indicate a capacity beyond what the Distant Touch had - a capacity that the shipmind knew was hard-capped. The only way for the ship to exceed around 10% of light speed would be to make use of an energy source that was greater than what the ship itself could produce. A fully self-contained system could not hope to back up the queen's claim. So, then, either their system was not fully self-contained, or the queen was lying.

Distant supposed it was possible that there was some kind of infrastructure already in place - this was the Kyasians' system, after all. Perhaps there was a plant on a nearby asteroid that would supply the ship with power via laser, or something. There was no such infrastructure that the shipmind could see, but its ability to detect objects at a distance was limited by the diffusion of light. It certainly appeared that the system was barren, but that might not necessarily be the case. If the Deep Ocean was indeed counting on an external power source, it may also be able to count on similar assistance when decelerating. Perhaps an analogy to an electric train on a set of rails was more appropriate than the airplane analogy that applied to the Distant Touch.

The other possibility was that the queen was planning to jettison parts of her ship in order to decrease the mass needing to be accelerated. Her schematics did not imply that any such ability had been designed in, but it might be possible for her to autotomize in an improvised manner. This struck the shipmind as an extreme course of action. For one, she should know that the Distant Touch would not be able to keep up with that strategy without imitating it. And for another, it would make decelerating once she got close to the planet quite difficult.

Either way, it was perplexing that she would offer this as her speed when the next fastest thing in the system could only reach a tenth of that. How much warning did she need to give them?

Copy that. The drones will be retained for future use.

The situation is being explained to the stowaway as we speak. I will relay her reaction and suggest that she speak to you directly. I assume Kalsuri's drone will be capable of transmitting for her? If not, please suggest an alternate method for her to communicate with you.

As for the journey to your planet of origin, it is fascinating to learn that you have the capability to attain that kind of speed. There is nothing in your schematics that would indicate this. Is the figure of .997c accurate, or has there been some kind of mistake? If so, we certainly understand. If not, have you given us inaccurate schematics? We were operating under the impression that your ship used a similar fusion-reaction system to our own.

As a practical matter, it may prove a blessing that you will be able to reach your base long before we will. If indeed you can, you will have plenty of time to prepare for our arrival. It may be worthwhile to discuss the kinds of preparation that would be useful, that is, if your figure is accurate.

We will need to refuel before leaving the system. Our ship obtains a significant portion of its fuel in-system from scooping gas giants - our route was planned in advance and is known to contain them at a high enough frequency. This system is one such - the grey-blue class II in position I was our target when we first entered the system, and we will be returning there briefly to top up. Strictly speaking, we would be able to make the trip as-is, but it is our policy to refuel whenever possible to minimize the time spent travelling below top speed.

There are a number of considerations to work out before departing. Namely, you still have our shuttle, and we still have three of your shipmates. As mentioned we would like the shuttle back whenever it is available - if it will not be available in a reasonable amount of time, now would be the time to inform us of this. As for the Kyasians, Ril's fate is currently being decided, but what of the other two? My crew may remain awake during the very first part of the journey, but they must spend the vast majority of it in preservation in order to avoid death or serious psychological damage. During this time they will be unable to care for your specimens. It may be possible to preserve your specimens as well, but this would be a makeshift endeavor and would present a moderate risk of failure. We have neither the knowledge nor the facilities to preserve them properly. However, if they are not preserved, they will likely die or undergo significant personality changes by the time my crew is awakened. This may prove traumatic to either or both parties. I believe the best solution would be for you to preserve the specimens on your own ship, however I cannot determine from your schematics if you have this ability. By the generational nature of your ship, I would guess that you do not. I will accept your advice on the matter, and the advice of your two subjects if it is permissible, before making a decision.

If there are any other matters of concern to you, now would be the time to present them. Otherwise, we plan to depart for the gas giant once these are solved, and for Outer Coraln immediately after that. We have a map of the nearest few hundred systems in our navigational computer - we will send over a 2D snapshot of it in the format used previously. It should be a simple matter to mark the appropriate system and send the image back. The stars are marked by class and by apparent brightness - if this does not provide enough information to determine which system is Outer Coraln's, please let us know.

"To prevent oxygen toxicity?" The avatar's expression was slightly condescending. "I do not know much about your species' physiology, but from what I do know I would guess that you cannot breathe pure oxygen for an extended period of time without harmful effects. Even if you can, my crew cannot, and my ship's air supply was designed primarily for them. As you might imagine."

"Anyway, a more important matter has come up. I have informed the queen of your rebellion and she has requested you back. Yes, yes, I'm sure you're outraged at me for betraying your trust. Go ahead, let it all out. When you're done with that, or perhaps while you're doing that, you can inform me of your opinion on the matter. The queen claims to hold no resentment toward you for your actions, and has stated that you are not 'in trouble' for them. If it were me, I would be skeptical of that, but it is your decision. It was a request, not a demand."

Ukeiri listened attentively, with an expression that seemed to indicate that he wanted to comment at several points. He never did, though. When Kalsuri was done talking, the Camilan nodded and gave his reply. "Yes, our ship has quite the store of fiction as well. Everything we've been able to salvage, in fact. I tend to prefer nonfiction myself, but if you're ever curious I am sure the archives are open to you."

"Your answer is of good detail and has been recorded, but I would like to make sure you haven't left anything out. Specifically, it seems as though your response only addresses psychological well-being, which, while important, is only part of the picture. What about physical pleasure? It seems to me that you enjoy being out of your suit, and you have mentioned several times that you are capable of feeling a sense of euphoria. Could you perhaps expand on your answer?"

by **Kyasiouna** » Tue Aug 16, 2016 11:38 pm

Sitting in the shadows cast by the monitors, the queen wondered what her assistants were doing. She felt no desire to speak with them, but she couldn’t help but wonder as she waited for the alien’s response. Fortunately she was not left alone with her thoughts for very long, the message responding was immediately displayed on one of the working monitors. She read the message with haste realizing that she had been overly vague in regards to the method of inter system travel. The situation with the stow away was more concerning than she was comfortable disclosing but it was important that the engineer return to the Deep Ocean. Such a rouge child was a sure sign of weakness, maybe the aliens had already caught on to that, perhaps they never would. Regardless she was disappointed that this message did not contain a resolution to the issue. It also seemed the ship had not been returned, which was odd, perhaps the damage to the airlock was more severe than the worker had been willing to admit.

She opened a communications channel to the worker, her body was tense, she did not want to force the aliens to abandon their vessel. Such an act would be improper.

“This is the bridge, requesting and ETA, on the departure of Kalsuri’s supplies on board the alien vessel. Why hasn’t the cargo been launched?”

The response took several seconds before the response echoed through the darkness. “The damage is not severe but we are unable to determine the structural integrity of the door while the ship is within the dock. We have been doing various stress tests, but right now our only two options are launching the vessel assuming the door is sound, or to depressurize the entire dock in order to assure the safe passage of the vehicle and the surrounding airlock. We have delayed in making a decision because depressurizing the docking area would require that we dump all of the water within. This would be extremely wasteful, but it is the only way we can be sure that the door will not fail.”

“We are in the process of refueling, we can afford to waste the water. Is there any other reason for delay?”

“We took care to cover all signs of tampering with the vessel while examining it. It was made to sound important that the aliens were not aware of our investigation of the vessel.”

“What?”

“What?? I don’t understand. Did -”

“Where did you receive orders to reverse engineer the vessel?”

“It was part of the order to stock the ship once it arrived…”

“Of course, is the door actually damaged to the point that it could fail?”

“Uh… you ordered us to manufacture a reason to delay the launch to allow more time for examination.”

“Yes, I remember, please abandon all other mission objectives and return the ship to the Distant Touch as soon as possible.” the queen moved to retrieve the order that she had issued along with all orders since. As she ended the call she could see the alien ship launch from one of the displays to her side. The normal amount of ice billowed from the port as the ship moved to return to its mother. Her gaze was turned to the list of orders as she started pouring over the list looking for discrepancies. With the period of time that had passed from then to now, it didn’t take long to find what she was looking for.

With the order to load the coral on the freighter that Sularn had used there was a section that she did not remember writing, it had asked that the drones also load a crate of tools from engineering. Water swirled from Ishatameil’s mouth as she hissed, “Ril…”

She worked quickly as she compiled a message, there were plenty of tasks to complete aside from this message. To maximize working strength she began to issue orders while she wrote her message. The fruits of her labor would be quickly apparent to an outside observer as several beacons on the ship exploded to life, casting shadows across the hull of the Deep Ocean as they resumed transmission. Most of the signals would be observable to the outsider, but all signals intercepted where heavily encrypted and would be untranslatable to the non-quantum entities.

By the time the alien vessel was approximately 1.5km out the beacon would light up as it transmitted another message.

Apologies for the vacancy of information with the information regarding the Deep Ocean’s departure from this system. Our method of travel is meant to accommodate our inability to preserve a living and functioning hive while in stasis. We have station built at the edge of all systems we travel to that allow us to accelerate towards our point of origin at any given time. The device is a extremely high power explosive detonated into a sail that captures the energy allowing us to tether to the sail at a safe distance. The method allows us to travel at extreme speeds but it is extremely wasteful. Fortunately space has no shortage of resources.

As i’m sure you have observed, the vessel with Kalsuri’s coral has departed, and I must apologize, not just for the delay, but because our engineers took this opportunity to tamper with the ship to learn more about it. Such a decision was one that I authorized without realizing the implication of disregard that it has for you. If you wish for some kind of payment for any discernible damages please let me know. The ship should be in extremely good order, we did everything we could to return the ship in the same condition it was when we received it.

It is less of a complicated issue than you might believe in regards to Sularn and Kalsuri. They are not meant to be returned. If you no longer desire their presence on your ship you may send them back but they have no place on board this ship. Perhaps you could utilize a form of stasis, if you have one, to preserve them. But if you do not Sularn should live for another 200 years give or take, while Kalsuri will live for 120 more. It is very possible for their lives to be extended past this number under ideal living conditions and shortened under less ideal conditions. However the numbers should provide an excellent base life expectancy.

Finally I should remark that I have no other matters to discuss, I will give Kalsuri parting guidance and remain in contact until the drones .05ly distance after this point the signal becomes too distorted to replay information. There will come a point where our acceleration will prevent us from receiving messages until we slow down.

The message was sent with the modified picture of the systems nearby outlining a path to Outer Coraln. As well as another image from the perspective of the Deep Ocean, and the Distant Touch by proximity, of the surrounding stars with the Outer Coraln system outlined.

As soon as the message had been sent the Mother connected to Kalsuri though the drone, this message was not encrypted but their was and message sent alongside the one for Kalsuri that was either encrypted or some sort of code.

Kalsuri looked away from Ukeiri as the call came through, turning so she face the direction that she believed the Deep Ocean to be in.

“I can hear you, what is it?” Kalsuri acted as she had before holding her hand against the side of her head so as to hold the speaker closer to her head.

“Kalsuri, this is your Queen. We have made the decision to return to Outer Coraln to assist the Camilans with integration and acceptance. Do you understand?”

“I… Yes, but what about the search for the Sintu? Are we abandoning them?”

“It has been… several years since we last received a distress signal. Our search of this system has yielded no results. It has been determined that they will never be found. It was not an easy decision to make.”

“What now? Am I going to stay on the Distant Touch or am I returning to the Deep Ocean for travel?”

“That is up to the crew of the Deep Ocean, but I have let them know you have no need to return at this time.” Kalsuri reacted positively her joy manifested as swam in circles waiting for the queen to finish her thoughts. “The Deep Ocean is faster than the Distant Touch, It is possible that many years will pass before they arrive and you may not return to the Deep Ocean. Is that ok?”

“Of course… I will miss your water, along with everything else… But I feel no sorrow while serving you.”

“I will be in contact with you until we accelerate out of range, I will be listening for your call.”

“Thank you,” Kalsuri lowered her hand, she felt great remorse at the idea of leaving her queen to stay on the Distant Touch, but that wasn’t about to stop her. The joy of interacting with the aliens was far too great to fall victim to homesickness.

She turned to Ukeiri, “I’m sorry for ignoring you, I guess the queen is planning of returning to our homeworld… After all these years of searching I can’t believe she gave up the search to help you guys. I mean, I can but… It's hard to comprehend how crazy it is that we made first contact I guess..”

“Oh! Your question… I,” Kalsuri looked back at Ukeiri, “I guess there are lots of sources of physical pleasure. Most all of the workers enjoy fornication. They don’t give birth obviously, but the pleasure is all physical, as well as celebratory of the real thing. Most people enjoy the idea of a growing hive and this is considered a way to share that feeling. The act is still one of great intimacy, and while it is just for fun, most people only do it with others in the hive that they are most attached to. I was often pressure to make bonds like these on board the Deep Ocean, but I don’t like any of the crew. All 109 of them are convinced they are the queen’s favorite. I wasn’t able to find out if that's normal and i'm the weird one…”

“Also, you were right about comfort bringing pleasure. The feeling of… well mostly open water, is much better that space suits. Clothes are only for decorated occasions. Some clothes are meant to be more comfortable and some people wear them all the time. I hate them.” The topic didn’t seem to cause Kalasuri embarrassment, however she did rub her arms while talking about clothes, which was a sign of embarrassment under normal circumstances.

“I guess there are a lot of things that feel good, I have heard good food, is nice but never had any so I don’t know. Lots of books explain hunting for food to be exhilarating and rewarding but I also have never done that. Rubbing against some softer coral usually feels nice.” It was clear that the topic was not a frequent topic of discussion as Kalsuri was struggling to come up with examples. “I guess narcotics could be considered to be enjoyable, lots of drugs are considered to feel good, but many are banned because they have negative side effects and can be addicting.”

“I might think of more later but I don’t really have a list off the top of my head. Sorry…” the Kyasian appeared ashamed at her slight failure, “What about you? What would you think of as pleasureable?”

Ril floated, deep in thought as she contemplated what the Mother wanted when she offered as safe passage. She remained silent until Kalsuri received the call from the queen, Ril twitched her body stiffening. She opened her mouth but no words came out as she grabbed the sides of her head and started thrashing in the water. Eventually she slammed her head against the wall grunting through gritted teeth as she curled and uncurled her tail. The seizure only lasted seconds after the thrashing stopped Ril floated shivering in the water. Slowly lowering her hands from her head she looked around her before she tried to talk. Her voice was ragged and she spoke unevenly.

“What… what were we talking abo-?” Ril grabbed her head gasping, “ah! What were we doing?”

by **Camila I** » Mon Aug 22, 2016 12:49 am

A bomb? So she was planning to outsource the reaction mass. If the shipmind had thought autotomizing parts of her ship was an extreme method, this was many times more so. The loss in efficiency compared to a stage system would have to be massive. Distant wasn't sure exactly how massive, as it depended on how big their sail was and on how far away they would have to position themselves from the explosion. But the description of a "sail" implied that at least half of the bomb's energy would be thrown uselessly out in the wrong direction, and likely much more than half. This was assuming that the bomb was even as efficient as a reactor.

There were a few good reasons why the queen would prefer such a method. Most obvious would be if her civilization's bomb technology was significantly ahead of its reactor technology. For Maladen this was not the case - the best bombs were fusion-powered, and so were the best reactors. There was some discrepancy in efficiency but this was comparatively marginal - not nearly so vast as to make the bomb a practical mode of transport. However, if the aliens had only recently discovered antimatter, or recently discovered a way to mass-produce it, they may not have perfected a way to contain the reaction, and would have to content themselves with coasting on an antimatter bomb. This struck the shipmind as unlikely. Maladen had theorized the existence and potential applications of antimatter long before they even knew it existed - when a practical source became available it would be the last component on the checklist. Still, different civilizations developed in different ways - it would not be so surprising.

The other set of reasons involved the bomb's ability to be used as a weapon. In dire straits the Distant Touch could theoretically utilize a variety of its systems as makeshift weapons. It happened that the light array was the most practical at most ranges - in a metaphorical knifefight the engines might be brought to bear as well. Still, it was far from a formidable opponent, and would likely be forced to flee in the face of any specialized combat ship. A bomb, on the other hand, would make a much more effective "makeshift" weapon. It was really more of a weapon being used as a makeshift engine. If the queen feared whatever entity had taken out the Destroyer, it could make sense to arm herself in this particular way. Distant thought that it made more sense to keep her weapons on board her ship and not detonate them every time she left a system, but the queen knew more about her situation than the shipmind did.

She could also just be misinformed or ill-equipped. The reason for her to use this system didn't necessarily have to be a good one.

I must admit, I had not considered that you would use such a system. I can certainly see the reasoning behind it, although I am curious why you would not use a multi-stage reactor system instead. It would allow you to approximate lightspeed at a greater efficiency, and though you would accelerate more slowly, it sounds as though you are purposely limiting your acceleration anyway. I can only guess that you may have access to antimatter bombs, but not to a working antimatter reactor, or that you prefer the bomb system due to its greater effectiveness as a weapon should you need one.

Whatever the reason, it is fortunate that you do use this system, as we may be able to make use of it as well. As you have probably noticed, our ship is equipped with a sail too. Its primary purpose is to catch solar wind and serve as a platform for the ram scoop, but the plasma from a star and the plasma from a fusion bomb are not different enough to affect its functioning. If you happen to be using an antimatter bomb, the sail will also be able to make use of the photonic impulse, though I admit this situation has not been as thoroughly tested. We would require your assistance in orienting ourselves - it would be quite unfortunate to stand too close to the bomb when it detonates. If you provide us with the precise location of the bomb, as well as its precise yield and type of output, we will be able to input the size and efficiency of our sail. We will plan to arrive as close to you in time as we can, erring on the side of after you.

The main question is how we would decelerate upon approaching Outer Coraln. Under our own power, we will actually not be able to burn off enough velocity to enter an orbit before running out of fuel. We would need some kind of assistance. Because, I assume, your ship requires assistance too, you must surely have some kind of system in place on the other side to keep you from destructively impacting the planet you're trying to visit. Dare I guess that this might be another bomb? If so, we have easily enough fuel to orient the sail in the opposite direction during the trip, and to make course corrections if necessary.

Regarding the shuttle, it is not a problem at all. If you have actually managed to learn anything useful from it, consider it an advance on your repayment for assisting us.

Regarding the stowaway, point taken. She will be returned as soon as possible.

Distant watched the Kyasian's seizure with no small amount of distress, though its avatar didn't show it. "Okay, we need to get you back to your mothership," it said, feigning calm. "It would be extremely improper to transport you in this state - our doctor will be here shortly to dress your wounds. Please wait a moment."

The sliding sound of the airlock could be heard shortly, and Najma's body could be seen moving around behind the inner door. A few moments later, the inner door would open, and the Camilan would approach the Kyasian. She was still wearing her grey bodysuit, but now had a suite of medical equipment strapped to various parts of her body - wherever it could be conveniently reached. Upon seeing the cloud of dark liquid surrounding the alien, she became visibly agitated. "What the hell has been going on in here?!" she demanded indignantly, swimming right up to the Kyasian and beginning her attempts to bandage her.

"The injuries are self-inflicted," the shipmind replied reassuringly. It was unclear whether or not Najma believed it. "The creature is obviously in a great deal of stress."

"When you said we had a stowaway, I assumed you had been taking care of it!"

"Like I said, self-inflicted. And the seizure it has recently had was a result of the queen transmitting a seizure-code through the drone. She obviously doesn't want this worker on our ship."

From Najma's reaction it seemed that she had already been informed of the seizure, but not of its origin. She turned to stare at the viewscreen. "What, really? How?"

"By radio. The stowaway must have some kind of implant that responds to the signal."

"Well, can we get her somewhere shielded?"

"Negative. As I have already told you, we are sending her back to the Deep Ocean. As soon as possible."

The Camilan didn't say anything for a moment, continuing its work in silence. "So this is the treatment her workers get. And we're going to send her back to this?"

A familiar feeling of unease began to spread through the shipmind's nerve fibers - the feeling that its crew might not end up cooperating with it. "I, too, am uncomfortable sending her to whatever punishment the queen has planned for her. The queen claims she is not in trouble, but if this is the kind of treatment she gives her, I see no reason to believe that. But what choice do we have? The queen's cooperation is of considerable value to us - can we really afford to lose that over one worker?"

Najma continued to watch the viewscreen, her years of practice allowing her to dress the wounds on autopilot. "So you're suggesting we abandon our ideals in order to appease someone with the power to make our lives more convenient?"

"That's a bit of an understatement. The success of our mission may depend on the queen's help."

"Mhm. And would you torture her yourself, if the queen demanded it?"

The avatar's expression now accurately reflected its discomfort. "That is not necessarily the fate we would be sending her to." Najma glared at it. "But to answer your question, most likely not."

"We're not willing to send over any of our own crew members due to the danger and uncertainty. And we have reason to believe she would be treated badly. We have no reason to believe that we would. Don't you see anything wrong with valuing her well-being that lowly?" The Camilan peered at the avatar, which said nothing. She realized that it did see something wrong with this - her attack was not entirely fair. "What, exactly, do we need the queen's help for anyway?"

"Well, she has already provided us with the location of her home system, so we do not need her as a guide. However, she seems to think there is a risk of our arrival being misunderstood, and has offered to serve as our advocate. Additionally, her propulsion system has the ability to shorten the trip by a factor of ten if she allows us to piggyback on it."

"Ten years, a hundred years, are we really going to start acting immorally to save time? We'll be in stasis the whole trip either way."

"I agree. It is the first service that I value more."

"Honestly, I think she's just saying that to make her help seem more valuable to us. Why would our arrival be misunderstood? It's obvious we're not a warship - she was able to see that, so why wouldn't her planet?"

"I don't know why. You may be completely right. But she knows more about her planet than we do. There may be all manner of reasons."

"Exactly, we don't know anything! The perfect situation for her to manipulate us. Even if we know nothing, we have no reason to believe that they would react negatively, except that she says they might. And if she has a vested interest in us believing that, how much faith can we really put in her claim?"

"You raise a very valid point. But the fact remains that we only have the one ship, and only the one chance to meet them."

The Camilan fell silent for a moment. "Yeah. You're right. We can't afford to mess this up. Which is why we should take a stand while we have the opportunity. They should know that we have standards, and that we won't compromise them just because we're in a vulnerable position. If they're a moral species too, then they should see what we're doing and, even if they disagree with the specific standards, they should respect us for upholding them. We can discuss the details with them if we need to, but being willing to discuss our standards and being willing to abandon them for selfish reasons are totally different." At this time, the Camilan had finished dressing Ril's obvious injuries, and she began looking her over for other signs of harm.

"I suppose you're right. It may turn out that we need to send Ril back anyway, but in the current situation, I can see that it is hard to justify."

"Good. Can I take her somewhere shielded now?"

"Yes. The core room is shielded from all types of radiation and will provide a safe haven for her while she recovers. If the damage from the seizure is not too bad, perhaps she can make her own decision in time."

The Camilan began trying to lead the Kyasian toward the airlock, supporting her to the extent she was able. "It's okay, we're going somewhere safer now," she murmured into the alien's ear. To the viewscreen, she said a bit more loudly, "We should contact the queen about this."

"I know."

"Since I'm the one who convinced you in the first place, maybe let me do it?"

The shipmind was mildly surprised at the request. "If you wish. I will, of course, look over the message before it is sent out."

Najma nodded. "I'll dictate."

During the process of preparing the stowaway for transport, our ship's medical practitioner brought up some concerns with her treatment. She takes issue with the use of seizures to control your subordinates, and believes it shows a lack of concern for their wellbeing. Considering this, and considering your earlier remarks about how criminals are punished in your society, we have decided that we cannot in good conscience send her back to you. It was not an easy decision, and it makes us supremely uncomfortable to interfere with the functioning of your ship, but if we cannot justify sending our own crew members, who have done nothing wrong, over to you, then we cannot justify sending over someone whom we have good reason to believe will be mistreated.

In a more general sense, we believe that the poor treatment of sentient beings can only be justified if it is the only way to prevent greater harm in the future. As of yet, we have only purposefully harmed a sentient twice - when we killed Ukeiri to protect a greater number of lives from what we believed was a credible threat, and when we insisted on leaving for your planet in order to maximize the success rate of our mission, which will prevent the extinction of our species. It is this ideal that prevents us from allowing Ril to risk being harmed at your hands, when there are better ways to ensure she will not be a threat to you. If you wish to protest this ideal, we offer you the opportunity. If you wish to provide new information that may change our perspective on the situation, you have that opportunity as well.

You should know that we will be shielding Ril from any future seizure-codes, or indeed any kind of remote control at all. If you need to interact with her for any reason, you will have to go through us. We will make every effort to bear out your wishes, unless they cause her unnecessary harm as detailed above.

As Najma led the Kyasian out of the airlock and toward the ship's core, she did her best to explain the situation to Sularn as she passed. "Sorry, excuse me, I'm taking the stowaway somewhere else to treat some self-inflicted injuries. She has been under a lot of stress due to her purpose of being here. You can have your aquarium back now, but I would recommend waiting until that light on the door turns green. That will mean that all of the blood has been filtered out of the water. Again, sorry for the inconvenience." The nervousness in her voice as she swam by the massive creature may or may not be apparent. She swam a little more quickly as she was getting away from him.

Najma led the Kyasian through several of the ship's corridors, the doors opening ahead of her as Distant already knew the quickest path. At some point, they passed through an airlock, and the water transitioned to air. When they reached the core room, it would be fairly obvious. The room was spherical, and it seemed that all the other rooms and hallways branched off from it. Its exterior was a bare, dark metal, with pictographic markings on the outside in a style similar to the shuttles. The Camilan opened the door and brought the Kyasian inside.

The interior was fairly large, and had elements reminiscent of the shuttles as well. It was dim, and what seating there was had seatbelts to keep the occupants in place. In the center of the room was a series of four stasis pods arranged in an X-shape. Surrounding and intertwining with this structure was a whole series of smaller stasis-pod-like capsules with indeterminate purpose. Various computer equipment, and equipment with obscure function, lined the walls in a regular pattern.

"Sorry if this is a bit more cramped than you're used to, but you won't have to worry about any more seizures here." Realizing she had been talking past the patient this whole time, she shook her head and asked, "So, uh, how are you feeling?"

Ukeiri appeared distracted by what Kalsuri's conversation implied. "Distant, is that right? Are we really leaving?"

"Yes. The queen has provided the location of her system. As we suspected, it is not this one. I am currently working out the details of the journey with her, but in all cases we will be going there."

The Camilan seemed to swell up, having inhaled sharply. He took a few moments to breathe deeply, smiling the whole time. "Oh, man. So we really did it. Stage three completed, eh?"

"I believe it is safe to say that, yes. Allow me to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your successful diplomatic work."

Ukeiri gave the avatar an odd look. "And to think, not too long ago you wanted me dead."

"I have nothing to say to that. Well done, and you may continue your study of Kalsuri until we are ready to embark. At that time, it is my intent that both of you will be placed into stasis. Assuming Kalsuri consents to that, of course."

"Understood." He glanced at the Kyasian for her approval. "So," he said, still clearly euphoric about this development, "where were we?"

"Ah, yes. You had asked me what I find enjoyable. Well, here is part of your answer. Obviously it varies from person to person, but for me, the highest pleasure is the feeling of accomplishing something great. Part of that is the sense of overcoming great odds, and part of it is knowing that I am a valuable member of society and that others have not misplaced their trust in me. I would guess that this is true for the other crew members as well."

"Some people, of course, don't have quite the ambition that we do, but obviously they're not the ones you'd be meeting, eh?" He grinned.

"Other things that would be high on the list would be drugs, sex, and food, probably in that order for most people. For drugs and food, people have different tastes, but respond similarly to the ones they like. For sex, though, it depends on which gender you are. Males are receptive to sex year-round, but females only enjoy it while they're in estrus, or so I'm told. Distant, you have a female brain, right? You should have firsthand experience of this."

"Yes, one out of the five," the shipmind replied. "And you're right, sex is not pleasant unless a female is in heat. This happens at various intervals depending on the suitability of her environment to raising offspring. It tends to happen more frequently during the rainy season, but this is not a hard rule, and the frequency of cycles can be affected by modifying the female's environment. What I can say from experience is that this is not under the female's control."

"Right," Ukeiri said. "Bottom line is, whether a female is going to enjoy sex depends on where she is in her cycle. If you try at the wrong time, like an idiot, you're probably going to get yourself into a fight. And as you've seen, the female is going to be bigger and stronger than you are." He grinned again.

"If you're ready, my next question is going to be what kind of things would cause you displeasure. Maybe you already guessed that. Again, please try to rank the items, and otherwise give as much detail as you can."

by **Kyasiouna** » Mon Aug 22, 2016 6:28 pm

Blood swirled in circles around Ril as she pressed the palm of her injured hand against her head, trying to massage the ache away as it crashed through her brain. The tremors of agony spread out from her hand as she struggled to force the feeling away. She felt her head slam against a very solid surface the pain from the impact was almost unnoticeable. Struggling to hold her body still she waited for Distant to respond to her question. The time she spent waiting blurred and before she thought to reiterate her question there was a tug as her hand was pulled away by a creature she did not recognize. As concerned as Ril was with the door now being open, not to mention there was an alien administering treatment to her hand, she found that she was more concerned that the alien could undoubtedly feel her racing heart rate through her hand or even the water. It was a symbol of fear or aggression to be in such an agitated state. Though the pain and embarrassment, Ril found that following the conversation between Distant and the newcomer was incredibly difficult, but it was impossible to miss several imprecise assumptions. The thought of correcting the two came to mind, until they made the decision to keep her on the ship. They also made the decision to shield her from and sort of broadcast that the queen might try to send.

The pain from the side of her head had started to subside as the alien pulled her out of the aquarium presumably to the shielded portion of the ship, where radiation was completely obscured. It was impossible not to notice Sularn waiting outside the door like some kind of guard. Ril knew he would recognize her and tried to avoid looking at him.

The male lifted his head and followed their path through the water, lifting his torso as if to engage until Najma spoke. He was confused enough by her words, and Ril’s presence, that he stopped moving to say, “What?”, quietly as Najma whisked away with the Kyasian in tow.

“Distant, what did she mean when she said ‘all of the blood’ what happened? Why is Ril on board the ship? She is the stowaway?” Sularn face was obscured and the armor’s inertia prevented any subtle body language, but it was clear that he was concerned.

Once the alien had closed the door the insulation caused the pain to subside almost completely. Ril was initially pleased that she recognized a few of the markings on the wall, but quickly realized she still had no idea what they meant. Her short time studying the language of the aliens had done little to help her understand them. She turned to the Camilan and spoke, her first words in the alien tongue, “greetings,” she continued in Kyasian, “I’m sorry to have caused so much trouble… I’m fine now, but i didn’t realize that the safeguards in place wouldn’t function onboard this ship. The pain I felt was self imposed,” She muttered to herself, “most of it is…” before continuing, “But the queen doesn’t issue pain to keep her children in line, such practices are extremely rare not to mention illegal.”

“That being said, I use pain to subvert the Mother's control of my mind to allow me to work with, what I deem to be, better judgment. I have been working to unravel the mystery of our time in space for years, and I found that thoughts and ideas would go missing from my mind as I worked. It took me forever to determine that the queen was using the implants, that are meant to secure my happiness, to subvert the motions of my mind and control my focus. I later discovered, while searching for means to prevent the queen’s influence, that the implants would cancel out any issued orders by the queen if they detect any associated pain to implants activation. So I determined the frequency of my own implants by experimenting with my emotions. It wasn’t hard to trigger the implants normal functions, and equally easy to identify the radio signals that were associated with its activity. It’s a subtle change in mood or temperament almost always to make you feel better. It’s normally impossible to notice unless you are looking for the feeling, although I think that there is something wrong with the implants as i have since learned that Kalsuri also suffered from a similar issue without any provocation to subvert the process.”

“I suppose i’m over explaining, in truth my queen was not trying to harm me, she was trying to issue feelings of love and compassion towards her to affect my decisions and I guess the safeguards I abuse to cancel out the process don’t work here. So the pain I cause myself to avoid her control did not cause the sensation to go away. While I do feel more disposed towards her at the moment I expect the feeling to pass. She also, in all likelihood, tried to modify my short term memory. It’s hard to tell from my perspective, which is why I try to ask those around me what's happened recently to see if my memory aligns with theirs. I, Uh… sorry.”

She must have been talking for awhile and she couldn't really tell what the alien was thinking from its expression. Taking a moment to breath in the air around her she tried to relax. It was strange to be floating in open air. Most open air on the Deep Ocean was under the influence of gravity. There were exceptions in the engine area, but Ril rarely had reason to go there.

“By the way, i’m Ril… What’s uh…” Ril switched to Camilan, “what’s your name?”

Staring at Ukeiri, the Kyasian took almost a minute to think of her response. Her thoughts, while not normally prone to wander, drifted as she found it’s quite disconcerting how structured and thought out Ukeiri’s responses were. It was as if her had them in mind before she had even started talking to him. Perhaps it was the implants that he had spoken of? Tossing the issue aside Kalsuri found that it was slightly easier to conjure a list of maladies.

“It’s much like my previous answer but in reverse. Things tied to the queen’s happiness affect us and so do things that upset the queen. If she declares anything upsetting to her, it will become upsetting to her children in short time. Things like hunger and illness, and pain are the forefront of displeasure. I’ve not heard of displeasure from sex, but it's not something i have had a great amount of personal experience with. I know that we have no equivalent of estrus.”

“I assume pain is somewhat universal, things like injury, sickness and hunger cause varying degrees of pain depending on their severity. Displeasure also comes from failure to obtain levels of happiness like the ones described before. For me it was a source of malcontent to be so easily replaceable by machines as I worked to complete tasks on board the Deep Ocean. I know you want me to rank the levels of displeasure from different sources, but I don’t think it's that simple.”

“Things like injury are less upsetting for some and more for others, there are people that don’t like injury to such an extent they will limit their own actions to prevent the possibility and other who go out of their way to perform acts that endanger themselves, especially males. Some people hate sickness and others hate hunger or sorrow. It's a pretty wide scale. If I had to rank anything, I would say that it's always extreme if it happens to the queen. If the queen is happy or sad, it is always reflected in her hive.”

“I’m sure I missed something, but I will let you know if anything comes to mind.” As she spoke she knew that she had missed something. She didn't know what it was but she was sure that Ukeiri's response would be just as well spoken as all previous statements, it was certainly possible he recognize that she had missed something. Perhaps his response would help her remember? Maybe he would just ask her directly as if he could read her mind... It certainly wouldn't surprise her at this point.

The message, like all the others, lit the chamber with the notification flickering across the screen nearest the queen. Looking over the message she felt a sense of satisfaction that the miscreant was to be returned. It was agitating to have such an unpredictable factor onboard the Camilan vessel. Not to mention it was important to determine how this individual was able to do so much while working under the radar. Ishatameil remembered having dealt with this one before, it had been a while but, if memory served, the worker had been trying to determine why the home beacon was offline. It seems that Ril had managed to resume her studies in spite the efforts to suppress them. Regardless the treatment to ensure her return was apparently successful and this would soon be behind them.

As she worked to generate a response there was another notification that drew her attention away from the screen where she was writing. She muttered aloud in confusion, “Was something forgotten?”

The message was in a significantly different tone, and carried information that was alarming as well as infuriating. Ril somehow managed to convince the aliens that she needed asylum, to shelter her from seizures? That didn’t make any sense. Perhaps there was a failure in the communications relay and it had issued a damaged command? It was important that the slate be wiped clean before this escalated. She composed her message a quickly as she could, with some regret to the amount of detail that they had requested. It would take her longer than she would like to respond, especially with such an issue as torturing her children being a present concern.

I apologize for the delay in my response but your inquires are not all simple to respond to. First and foremost it is very important that it be made clear that I do not, under any circumstance, find reason to torture my children into submission. If Ril is suffering from pain or seizures as a result of her implants it is a matter of technical failure that would normally have been addressed as soon as it became an issue. Its also important to note that the control of a hive by means of emotional manipulation is common practice in space, to avoid such instances as these. In natural conditions it is healthy and normal for those like Ril to challenge authority. In space there is not room for expansion so revolutions like her’s are meant to be suppressed.

With that out of the way I would still insist on her return.

In regards to the size and method of travel, I have previously constructed a extremely large antimatter bomb with a blast yield of 12000 gigatons of tnt. The structure has a 168000Mm chord that links to a sail that is near enough to absorb much of the blast. The bomb emits 4.8*10^14gj of power. The blast range is such that the 168000Mm is still barely within range and I am required to have a dense shield to absorb some of the force. I will transmit the location of the bomb, regardless of your intentions as well as ours, I suggest you maintain a 150000Mm safe distance from marked location. You are free to do whatever you desire to harness this energy, if you wish to reposition I will wait as long as you need.

The method of deceleration requires that your ship have a skeleton that is magnetic. We use gates that are passed through once you near your destination to bleed off energy, the gates will actually capture enough magnetic energy to provide the gates with power as we pass through. Once the gates have been passed we will have slowed enough to utilize the gravity well of the gas giants within the system to complete our stop. It is important that I use the ship's engines to reduce my speed and correct course before we hit the gates. The sail for acceleration will be retracted and repositioned behind the craft partway through the trip. Under emergencies I can eject our fusion drive and vent the water onboard the ship to bleed off energy before detonating the drive into the sail. I believe your ship will not be moving at my same speed and should not need any assistance aside from the magnetic gates and an orbital brake.

The queen sent the message, anger and confusion filling her mind as the events that had transpired continued to occupy her mind. The frustration of losing control of her own child in front of the first aliens on record was bad enough. This mixed with the resigning of her unofficially active mission was nothing but disappointment in herself and her actions. Hesitating she issued a command to the ship's computer to issue a stress reliever. The command was not one that she had ever used. Furthermore she had never assumed she would. The resulting flow of relaxant slowly crawled down one of the many tubes that flowed into her neck and head, it reached her neck and spread through her much like happiness normally would. The drug was not one that clouded the mind but it was still a supplementary medication. It was well within her knowledge that such an act was one that would be seen as weak and incapable to any authority that reviewed the records of the Deep Ocean’s voyage. Perhaps they would understand.

by **Camila I** » Wed Aug 24, 2016 6:28 am

"Ril bit herself for reasons that I cannot determine," the shipmind said. "As for why she is here, she wished to decode transmissions from your home system, and could not do so under the direct observation of the queen."

"I deyá," Najma said in response to the greeting. Hello. She listened to the creature's chatter with a blend of emotions. One part of her was concerned for its pain, wishing to alleviate it and the situation that was causing it as soon as possible. Another part of her, however, was annoyed with it. For all that it said, it left out the most important piece of information - whether she wished to return to her ship or stay.

"A Naila niŋkúi." They call me Star. "Ŋaládi eqaŋilira exuaxuere xuí." Lacking a syrinx, you speak the language imperfectly. Depending on how thoroughly Ril had studied the language, she may not fully understand this part. "Perfect," maybe, since the name of their homeworld was derived from the same root. "Syrinx," probably not. "Because of this, it is somewhat difficult for me to understand you. I appreciate the effort, but you're really just making it harder on both of us. I have no reason to believe that Distant's translation is not sufficiently accurate."

"Oh, lighten up," came the voice of the shipmind. "Obviously she takes pride in being self-reliant. Otherwise she wouldn't be here!"

Najma was annoyed that the shipmind could sense her annoyance, and more so that it didn't share it. "You just don't want to have to translate as much," she retorted, slightly regretting her tone.

"Hm. You should know better than anyone that my anterior insula has been modified to aid in risk assessment. I hardly have the capacity to mind the work."

"The person who would know better than anyone is the person who actually put you under the knife. Or people. I wouldn't know."

"Well, if that bothers you, a full list of modifications is available in the archives."

"That doesn't bother me," she said somewhat pointedly.

"I see. You are upset that our guest is making things inconvenient for us."

Najma blushed. "A little."

"Well, I can certainly understand that, but do keep in mind that she has recently had a seizure. It may not be fair to expect her to have the presence of mind that you or I do. Are we not lucky that she can speak coherently at all?"

On a different Camilan, perhaps one who wasn't raised as a blue-petal, this chiding could have easily annoyed them further. On Najma, it had the intended effect of making her bow her head in shame. "You're right, I should be more patient. Ril, I'm sorry for getting annoyed. Not that it's any excuse, but I'm used to having to prepare for a world of hurt when I get an uncooperative patient. Obviously this situation is quite different...."

"Anyway," she said after a long pause, "since we still haven't completed the neurological survey, I'm afraid I don't know what to offer you to help with the pain. All we can really do at the moment is shield you from any further signals. Whether they hurt you by your own doing or by the Mother's, it's still the same thing in our eyes."

"You're free to stay here as long as you want. I'll be honest, it'd be nice to get your decision on whether you're going back or not sooner rather than later, but your own comfort is more important, so take as long as you need to decide. If there's anything I can do for you, just let me know."

Though the shipmind's conversation with Najma was lighthearted, it masked a deep unease the entity felt for the situation. At this point, it seemed likely that the queen's ability to manipulate her subjects was cruder than originally thought. Emotional modification and memory wiping seemed to be the pinnacle, with her having no ability to fundamentally change their attitudes except by these methods. But of course, that could also just be what she wanted the shipmind to think. It was reminded of Ukeiri swimming awkwardly on purpose to keep the alarm felt by others to a minimum. It was entirely possible that the queen thought her ploy, if it was a ploy, was working to perfection - that Distant didn't even suspect that anything was amiss.

For the time being, the course of events seemed to suggest that Ril had indeed successfully subverted her queen's control, at least in part. Certainly it would be a high cost for the queen to pay if that wasn't the case - abandoning her mission, that is. Distant was willing to value this signal for a lot. As such, it was also willing to grant Ril's consent some significance. If she did ask to be returned, that would be suspicious, but probably not suspicious enough to keep Distant from granting the request. Probably. It would cross that bridge when it came to it.

For now, there was work to be done. The queen had once again been somewhat vague with the information she provided, but the shipmind finally had enough to begin making some calculations. Some assumptions had to be substituted in place of actual values, but at least it could start playing with the numbers.

By a magnetic gate, the queen probably meant one making use of the Lenz effect to slow down a metallic ship. How much the gates would slow depended on how many of them there were, how large they were, and exactly how magnetic the ship passing through them was. The shipmind knew one of these three variables - the magnetic-ness of the Deep Ocean. The schematics showed it being constructed of various materials, but having a steel skeleton that ran throughout it. Previously this had struck the shipmind as slightly odd; now it knew its purpose. This would force the alien vessel to bleed off quite a bit of its speed upon passing through the gates - more so than if the skeleton had been made of a more practical titanium-aluminum alloy, like the Distant Touch had.

Conservatively assuming that the gates would be just enough to slow the Deep Ocean down to orbital speed (the effects of any gravity assist being negligible), Distant could calculate how much they would slow down its own ship. The alloy of the Distant Touch would be affected more weakly by the Lenz effect than steel, but the ship was also six times its counterpart's length and had a much higher volume of metal. While still being able to pass through any gates that could admit the alien ship, it would be affected by them roughly six times as strongly. More precisely, it would be affected by them for roughly six times as long. Even with this, the gates would not slow the Distant Touch to the same degree as the Deep Ocean - it would still be going an appreciable fraction of lightspeed when it came out. Fortunately, if the gates were only barely extensive enough to slow the Deep Ocean, they would not restrain the Distant Touch from using its sail for any real amount of time. Once leaving the gates, it could deploy the sail to collect solar wind and hydrogen, the latter of which would be compressed into fusing in the forward engines without having to pass through the reactor. These combined effects would cumulatively slow the ship as long as the sail was out. More importantly, as it would not have to use any fuel to accelerate, it could save all of the reactor's reserves for slowing down.

Depending on how extensive the gates were, and on whether the Distant Touch would be able/allowed to pass through more than one (set), it might have to use the sail extensively or not at all. What was certain is that, compared to the Deep Ocean's sleek, perfectly-calculated entrance, the Distant Touch would have to come in engines blazing and then flounder comically for some time in order to finally come to a stop. Distant wondered if this was by design. There was virtually no other reason to use steel instead of a titanium alloy besides the ability to make use of the gates - any enemies of the Kyasian state that attempted to hijack their transportation network would likely run into the same problems that Distant had. It was hard enough to piggyback with their full cooperation - without it, even an enemy ship that didn't misestimate the bomb's lethal radius would find it extremely difficult to slow down once it had captured its energy. The shipmind laughed internally as it imagined a hostile warship helplessly careening way past its target system at .97c, not to pose a threat for hundreds if not thousands of years.

All other variables (shield strength, efficiency of the sail, efficacy of the reel system, tensile strength of the vessel, ability of the stasised crew to tolerate g-forces) turned out to be less important; i.e., the ship's ability to decelerate proved to be the limiting factor. This meant that, if the Distant Touch was willing to spend most of its fuel supply and all of its dignity on slowing down, it would be able to make the trip as fast as the Deep Ocean. Not counting any time spent using the sail, anyway.

Since we have last spoken I have indeed seen that you speak the truth with regards to Ril's implants. I apologize for misunderstanding - hopefully you can understand why it would be worrying when you transmit a radio signal to her immediately preceding her smashing her head against the walls. Furthermore let it be said that we do not have a problem with you suppressing or controlling your subjects. We are well aware that space is a demanding environment wherein strict adherence to the chain of command is necessary. The only thing we would have a problem with would be you accomplishing this in overly or unnecessarily harmful ways, which it does not seem you are doing.

We still intend to allow Ril the chance to consent to being sent back, as our concerns with her ultimate fate have not been satisfactorily addressed. She is currently deciding this - if she decides to be sent back there will be no further issues. If she protests it, we will inform you of her reasons as per your request, but we will not be so cruel as to send her back against her will if it appears she has a legitimate reason for fearing this.

Regarding our transport, our ship is capable of capturing enough energy from the bomb to match you in speed. The shield which is now facing your ship is insulative enough to protect us at a relatively close distance so long as it is oriented properly. Managing the acceleration to a level that our ship can tolerate will similarly not be a problem.

However, while our ship does have a magnetic skeleton, cubic meter for cubic meter it is less so than yours, and even with our ship's greater size, passing through a gate that will fully slow your ship will only slow ours by about 70%. We will be able to slow by another 18% or so using our own fuel reserves. The remainder will have to come from our sail, which will be a relatively time-consuming process during which we will have to fly around your system before being able to slow enough to enter an orbit.

More preferably, we could pass through a second gate, which would bring us to a halt by itself. If there are multiple gates in a line, we will not need any assistance to do this. If the gates are offset but far apart, we may be able to course-correct under our own power in between them. However, we would probably need foreknowledge of where the second gate was located relative to the first. If the gates are offset and close together, we will be going too fast to change course, and by the time we could loop around to pass through one, the sail would have burnt off enough speed anyway.

These concerns are not sufficient to prevent us from desiring to use your system, as it would allow us to arrive over two hundred years earlier than we could otherwise. Even if we had to use the sail for the full 12%, it would still be a significant time savings, and we would be within range to communicate for most of the time. It should be emphasized, however, that without any assistance from your gates, we would not be able to slow down in a reasonable amount of time, and would effectively be dead from your perspective. Should the gates not be available to us for any reason, malicious or otherwise, you will have destroyed any chance of interacting with us, as well as most of the probability that our mission would be a success. We trust that you would not use this system yourself if it were not sufficiently safe, so we place our trust in you that it will be.

As of now the only remaining concerns are Ril and the position of the gates. Once they are resolved we will refuel at the gas giant, then move into position in front of the bomb. Once we are in position and properly oriented, we will transmit our readiness to you. If for whatever reason we are unable to communicate, we would request that you refrain from detonating the bomb if we are closer than 200 thousand megameters and our shield is not directly facing the bomb, as this may damage or destroy us.

May the heavens look upon you with approval.

"Aha, I see," said Ukeiri. "I suspected that your kind might be thus attached to your queen, but from your actions I can tell that it is not as extreme as I would have thought. Certainly, if you value my life at anything similar to hers. Well, either that, or I should be flattered that you afford me such a high level of concern."

"If you did miss anything, it might be that you become upset in response to seeing others harmed or wronged. From my personal experience with you, it would seem that that is the case, and you didn't really mention anger in your list. You also seem to have demonstrated something akin to fear - of our ship, of me, of Distant, and of Sularn. Of course, if I knew for certain, I wouldn't be asking you these questions."

"Speaking of which, that is the last one before we move on to the physical portion of the testing. I am curious, however, what you think of our ship's members now that you have spent more time in our presence."

by **Kyasiouna** » Sun Aug 28, 2016 12:09 am

Ril listened to the ship as it talked to Najma, she listened as best she could without appearing overly earnest to hear what they had to say. The entire time they spent talking Ril spent trying to push her anxiety away. The pounding of her heart was so loud, she was sure the aliens could hear or feel it. Sure that it would see Ril for how weak she really was.

The ship and its crew had, so far, been hospitable beyond reasonable expectation, but surely they would not stand between the mad queen and her target. If there had been an order to have her implant influence her to return to the Deep Ocean, it was clear that the queen had plans for her immediate future. IT was no doubt some kind of punishment for her sneaking away. Ril had long since decided that the best way to act and think was to be as objective as possible and put her own emotions aside. Perhaps the queen did not share this sentiment to same extent, she was probably very angry and making decisions while angry. Thinking about her fate was very distracting, however the alien finally turned to her, having apparently lost the argument she apologized, which threw the Kyasian off guard. It seemed as though her opinion about Ril's use of Camilan had been fairly correct. It was strange that she would change her position so quickly.

Ril did not dwell on the nature of this decision as the alien continued on to ask the question that had been plaguing her mind for as long as she could remember, which was probably shorter than it should have been. The inquiry was not verbatim the plight that she endured, but it was very close. The decision to stay on the Distant Touch was the same as leaving the Deep Ocean. It would instantly label Ril a traitor and deserter, a harlot seeking her own personal desires and ignoring the well-being of her family and mother. On the other hand, if she returned to the Deep Ocean, it might as well be to her own death. The person she had come to be would quickly be replaced with a more correct version that fit the queen's desires. Ril looked at Najma, her face, mostly flat bone, did not show much expression, but Ril was deeply troubled and would look it to anyone familiar with Kyasian expression.

Harboring no desire to waste anyone's time Ril took a deep breath before she started, “I thank you... for everything that you have done for me, I- I don’t deserve this kindness. I have abandoned most of what Kyasians believe makes an honorable and righteous person. I have done everything I can to stay objective in my decisions a-” Ril stopped her posture slumping.

“I don’t want to go back,” Ril gripped her arms with great force, her knuckles stretching tight and her fingers digging, but not tearing, into her skin, “I never want to go back, If i say I want to go back I’ve been manipulated,” slight tremors crawled along her figure as she paused to collect her thoughts. She opened her mouth to continue but instead of words there was an extremely high pitched whine. Well above the levels that they had been communicating and such that Najma might not ever perceive it. Ril snapped away from the conversation, turning her head away and covering her mouth as she tried to muffle the noise.

The chemical treatment, working as intended, allowed for a more relaxed atmosphere in light of the recent events. It was not less upsetting to learn that Ril was being left to decide her own fate, but it was at least more manageable from an emotional standpoint. The disappointment with the situation was manifested as the hand of the queen swept sand from the floor up into the current. The resulting maelstrom of sand lasted only a few seconds as the current swept it all back towards the corners of the room. The mother went to work compiling another transmission, she spent less time on it than others. The message that followed was devoid of any real decisions or emotions. It was simply the requested information.

The process of approaching systems in fairly automated. The first gate is the largest and most powerful. It is farthest out from the system, obviously, and its main function is to slow the incoming ship as much as possible to allow for the scanning of said ships to determine and prepare the required amount and strength and rings to follow in order to slow the ship to a safe speed for orbital approach. The first ring is the only one that you need to know the location of and the rest will happen automatically. The location of the main interstellar gate will be transmitted with this message in relation to your ship’s current location.

I wish that all goes well with your travels and given our relative close proximity while traveling we should be able to communicate throughout the trip.

The queen sent the message and felt the sense of dread crawl through the medication and the overwhelming idea of leaving the system threatened to engulf her. It drew closer every time she sent a message and the conversation was certainly drawing to a close. Perhaps she should request that the drones scan the system? It was hard to say if that would be an improvement of the situation. The queen pushed the thoughts from her head, content to think of nothing at all.

Laughter tore from Kalsuri’s mouth as she barked into the water. The sound was short and abrupt and stopped as soon as it started. Mirth quickly transformed into puzzlement at Kalsuri thought harder about the situation.

“Wait,” she then waited for a second, “Why did you think I was scared of Sularn? Is it because of how quiet I am around him? Do you think he thinks i’m scared of him too?” her last question seemed to cause some level of alarm. Kalsuri either hadn't heard or completely ignored Ukeiri's question, her laughter had cut him off some extent so he might not be surprised.

Cold Topics [Closed]

Who is online