Song of the Void

”Most races value peace. There are exceptions of course, as some races are by nature warlike and value aggression and conflict, while the most extreme ones are in a permanent state of war with every other race. Still, the hyper-aggressive races are in the minority. Even among the relatively aggressive races, the ones that truly desire battle hire themselves out as mercenaries instead of pulling their entire race into wars. As a result of most races desiring peace, these races go to pretty extreme lengths to avoid war. This isn’t just because of their aversion towards violence, as wars are costly both in resources and lives. As a result, often it is advantageous to take unfavorable deals instead of engaging in a war that might leave your race crippled for decades, or even destroyed entirely. Even with all that in mind, sometimes peace is just not an option. I once heard a quote from one of my favorite leaders. ‘Sometimes peace is another word for surrender.’ Sometimes the price of that surrender is worse than the cost of war.”

- High Ambassador of the Mrrroww

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"I almost feel like helping them along," Nochehuatl muttered mostly to himself. "It's so rare to see a peaceful passing of the torch between a synthetic race and their creators, that I'm tempted to support it out of pure scientific curiosity. At least then we could say that it can happen, as we can actually point to a successful example.”

Moonshadow wasn't feeling as generous. "Don't feel too sympathetic towards them. Lest you forget, the Dawn Collective is waging war against pretty much everyone around them, and let's be frank here. Their reasons for that war are quite bad. Even though my first inclination as a diplomat is to negotiate a peaceful settlement to most conflicts, I can respect some reasons for war. But this isn’t one of those respectable causes. They are attacking their neighbors for basically no reason. The war between us and them hasn’t yet grown too severe, but you have to remember something. Every Mrrroww ship they destroy means that between a few hundred and few thousand of my people are dead. And they have destroyed more than one ship. We’re better off than most other races that have the misfortune of neighboring them as well. Think about all the dead the next time you’re feeling sympathetic towards these machines.”

“These sorts of things aren’t a matter of right or wrong, good and evil. There are no heroes and villains in wars between various races. There are only actions and consequences.” Amaterasu philosophized. She liked to think that the Illum’s cause against the Tetrarchy was about as righteous as one could get, but even then she had to admit that they were not some force of good fighting the evil Tetrarchy. That’s not how wars worked.

“That’s cute and all, but all this doesn’t really answer the important question. What are we going to do next? Our goal is close by, yet reaching it might be a challenge. The synthetics might not have figured us out yet, but if a newly arrived ship suddenly starts moving towards their super-secret construction project, that’s going to raise some artificial eye-brows.” Xiaoli pre-empted the possible argument that seemed to be brewing.

"We wait," Selendil stated firmly. "All we need is time. The more time we give Nox and Haven, the more control they can exert over the enemy network. Given enough time, we don’t need to worry about them anymore. The two can shut all of them down and we can just fly to the facility without being bothered.”

“That’s going to take several days though. We have to move carefully to avoid rousing suspicion. That’s not going to be as fast as the brute force method we used before. It’s also not quite as simple as taking over a single data hub. We’re looking at thousands of ships and defense platforms, not to mention all the supporting AI’s that won’t just be standing aside doing nothing when things get serious. And that’s assuming nothing comes up, which is always a potentially fatal assumption to make.” Nox commented.

"It will take as long as is required," Selendil stated calmly. Although she would prefer to be done quickly, a few days wasted were not going to bother her. The others might not quite share her blasé attitude when surrounded by this many enemies though.

“And once we do get there, then what? Are we simply taking the facility away? I mean, I don’t really care, but that’s going to put a damper on their little building project.” The answer had not really satisfied Xiaoli as it didn’t really cover what she wanted to know.

“That might be inadvisable.” Moonshadow had to admit, grudgingly. “I can’t predict how they would react to such a turn of events, but I doubt they will take it lightly. Now that might not be a problem for this ship, but it might be a big problem for the surrounding races. All these AIs might decide that they will need to find other ways to solve their problem and that will likely mean the high tech races like the Mrrroww. Maybe even the Haven?”

"Well, strictly speaking, we don't need the entire facility. We might need some of the machinery inside though, which could potentially hinder their use of the facility. Besides, I’m not entirely comfortable with the misuse of our old facilities. I’ll have to consider this a bit.” Selendil got up from her seat and started to leave the bridge. “Inform me if something changes or we run into some trouble.”

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The next few days were quite unnerving for most members of the crew. The presence of so many hostiles in the immediate vicinity gave everyone quite a lot of pressure, even if the situation seemed relatively safe for the moment. Nox and Haven learned quite a few things in the meantime. It seemed that the original creators of the Dawn Collective had tried using the VI of the Dhar facility to help develop their own AI project. The VI was not very cooperative and had reacted in a rather hostile manner. Unfortunately, the facility wasn't heavily armed by Dhar standards, so they had managed to overpower the defenses with horrendous losses to their own numbers.

Even with the facility’s defenses disabled, the VI was not going to cooperate and actively tried to hinder any attempts to access any of its data. The creators had time on their side though, and the VI didn't have the capacity of a full Dhar AI on its side. Slowly over time, they had managed to recover small fragments of information that they could utilize for their own AI. In the end, the facility’s VI had destroyed itself and any relevant data to avoid further leaks. This came slightly late in the sense that the synthetics had already managed to gain enough to develop sentience. This had initially shocked the creators slightly as they had also been caught by surprise due to the timing, but they had adapted to the situation quickly. Now the facility was fully under their control. The loss of their ‘brother’ made both Nox and Haven quite angry.

The second major development came on the third day. Khaem sent a message from the sickbay to inform everyone involved that his patient was showing signs of waking up. Both Lilly and Amaterasu rushed to the sickbay, Lilly as the personnel officer and Amaterasu for several reasons. As they arrived, they both noted that the place looked a lot more like a typical medical facility found on most ships than it had before. There were even a couple of nurses handling various things. As it happened, they had heard through the grapevine that none of them really took orders from Khaemwaset. That was mainly because, aside from two nurses Khaemwaset had brought along, the people working in the sickbay were either Amaterasu’s handmaidens or Xiaoli’s commandos that had medical training.

“Ah, good you’re here. She should be coming around any moment now. Her neural activity started spiking and she’s becoming more mobile. Also, now that our dear leader has forbidden me from doing anything to her, the whole prospect became much more enticing and I might not be able to stop myself from simple flirting. I’m pretty sure Selendil wasn’t entirely joking when she said she’d throw me out the airlock.” Khaem said in greeting. He also revealed the main reason why everyone else working in the sickbay refused to cede to his authority in the same breath.

"Yeah, I'm quite certain she wasn't kidding at all," Lilly said quickly with a little bit of disdain in her voice. She knew Khaem's personality better than anyone. She found it amusing most of the time, while quite annoying at other times.

"And I'll help her shove you out if you don't listen," Amaterasu confirmed her position on the subject.

“Eeh, ok then. Moving on. She’s through that door. You might have to wait a few minutes before she comes around. We administered a small stimulant once she started showing the signs so it should take effect soon. Still, we have no idea what her condition will be. Physically she’s ok aside from likely feeling weak due to…well, obvious reasons. Mentally she could be anything from a complete amnesiac and a lunatic to almost perfectly normal. There’s really no way to tell before she wakes up. We’ve removed the equipment she was connected to already. I’ll be close-by if something comes up.” Khaemwaset explained while staying near the door.

As it happened, the two didn’t have to wait long. Almost as soon as they entered, Miyo started to blink her eyes open. The room was quite well lit and the light apparently hurt her eyes, judging by the way she was squinting. Noticing the presence of someone in the small room, she turned her head towards the two, and her eyes widened immediately in recognition. “Your Majesty! Where…? How..? What..?” Her voice sounded extremely dry and raspy.

"Lilly, be a dear and get her something to drink. I think it might help with her voice." Amaterasu asked the Mrrroww next to her. At the same time, she waved Miyo to stay down, as the ex-handmaiden had made a move to get up and bow to her ruler. "And you should stay still. We can get to your questions in time. For now, we should see to your health."

Lilly returned almost immediately as Khaemwaset had anticipated this and had left several small cups of water on a side-table for them to use. Despite his nature, he was still quite competent. “Here. Have this.” Lilly placed a small tray in front of Miyo and brought her bed into a more seating position.

Miyo decided to not stand on ceremony and gulped down several of the small cups before she felt that her parched throat was feeling a little less like a cracked up desert. “A Mrrroww?” She asked with a raised eyebrow.

“That’s a long story and has to do with your earlier questions. Your mind suffered some heavy damage and while it was repaired, we need to determine the extent of what was lost. What’s the last thing you remember before waking up?” Amaterasu questioned. Khaemwaset had recommended for her to do this as she was a familiar face that Miyo respected. As a result, Miyo would be more cooperative than if Khaem tried to ask these questions. The Illum woman would try to keep the important things a secret from a stranger like Khaem, as any good spy should.

“I remember we boarded what we thought to be a Progenitor vessel. I managed to gain entry into the main body of the ship and…that’s where my memories end. I barely remember gaining access, but anything after that is just gone." Miyo's face was scrunched up in a clear attempt to remember. A look like that was impossible to fake.

“Good. Your memory seems relatively intact for recent events.” Amaterasu smiled.

"Not so recent really," Lilly muttered quietly enough that Miyo could not hear.

“What about older things? Do you remember your childhood? Your mission inside the Tetrarchy?” Amaterasu decided to ignore Lilly’s comment.

Miyo didn’t have any trouble with the older memories aside from a few odd random gaps that were just gone. Amaterasu asked dozens of questions to determine the extent of the damage, and Miyo had no trouble answering the majority of them. “Well, it seems your mind is relatively intact. We will have to monitor you for a while to see if there are any personality changes or other lasting damage like outbursts of emotion. I wouldn’t worry too much about the lost memories. From what I’ve read from the reports, you’re not missing anything extremely important, and from what I was told, those memories are gone in a way where they will not be able to come back.”

“Your Majesty, what’s going on? Where are we? What happened? What about my cover with the Tetrarchy?” Miyo had been quite patient so far but that didn’t mean her earlier questions or worry had disappeared.

“Well, telling the whole story would take too long, but I can give you some bits of information. You did gain access to the ship just like you remember. From what we’ve managed to piece together, you wanted to try and reach the bridge and steal the ship back to the Illum. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your perspective I suppose, you ran into the owner of the ship instead. That owner had just come out of stasis and you were the closest source of information available. She wasn’t all that gentle about the whole thing as you were an intruder, and your mind was broken as a result.” Amaterasu explained.

Miyo's hand went to her neck and found her protective necklace missing. Amaterasu saw the gesture and made a dismissive sound with a smile. "Yeah, that little thing was no help against the owner of the ship."

“The owner…you can’t mean…?” Miyo was close to grasping something in her mind but couldn’t quite get there. It was as if that piece of information was missing. She could make a guess though.

“I do. A living, breathing Progenitor. Or Dhar as their race is actually named. Incidentally, we’re on that very same ship right now, and she’s the one who repaired the damage to your mind. To quickly answer some of your other questions, the current crew of this ship is drawn from multiple races, hence Lilly here. The doctor is a complete pervert, so don’t bother flirting with him. As for your cover with the Tetrarchy, Nox I know you have access to that information. Would you mind filling us in?” Amaterasu asked while making a meaningful look towards the ceiling.

“Master informed the Human male known as Leon and his parents but it seems the news has not spread so far. That said, if she were to return, her cover would likely be blown immediately due to the circumstances leading to her disappearance.” Nox replied.

“Leon knows..?” Miyo stated half as a question. She wasn’t sure how to feel about that. She had actually cared about the man, though not quite as much as she had pretended. She did feel a small loss though.

“Yes. Master thought it fair to inform him in order to make sure he would not waste his life trying to rescue you. It seems he was planning on doing just that.” Nox added.

Amaterasu looked at the expression on Miyo’s face. “It seems you cared for this man.” Her words were a statement, not a question. On the other hand, they were not a rebuke either, which was a relief to Miyo.

Miyo considered the statement for a moment. “I did.” She finally admitted. “We were taught that it is easier to sell a lie when it contains at least some truth. And he was a good man. Easy to develop some feelings for.”

Amaterasu gave a long sympathetic sigh. “That’s one of the burdens that our Envoys have to carry. We encourage you to form connections and relationships, to blend in better. Those connections are important for getting the job done. And you can’t really form the relationships required without a certain amount of attachment. I’m not going to look down on you for that. However, I will point out that you will have to leave that in the past.”

“I know.” Miyo agreed with a shake of her head. “Still, this is a bit much all at once.”

Amaterasu gave a small chuckle. “Yeah, I think we can agree on that. A lot has happened after you stepped foot on this ship. That’s partially why I won’t try to overburden you by dumping it all on you at once. You’ll find most of these things out in time anyway.”

Suddenly Miyo seemed to cheer up a bit. “Could I meet the owner of the ship? I mean that has always been the dream of most Illum, and I can’t really remember anything of our last meeting. Meeting a real Dhar would be…nice.”

“You’ll meet her eventually. It’s hard to say when though. She’s a bit hard to figure out sometimes and the situation isn’t exactly optimal. You might meet her today, or it might take several days. I will pass on the news of you waking up. She’ll turn up eventually.” Amaterasu stated with a small smile. Without the Mrrroww present on the ship, she might be tempted to use the old adage about herding cats in reference to Selendil.

“Are we in danger?” Miyo picked up the hint about the situation and knew what to pay attention to as an agent.

“Well, that’s a bit difficult to answer. We are surrounded by potential enemies, but at the same time, we aren't really at risk. Suffice to say that the tensions are running a bit high at the moment, so don't be too surprised if people are a bit snappy, or something starts happening quickly." Amaterasu explained.

“The Tetrarchy?” Miyo questioned. That was the first thing that came to mind when she thought of enemies.

“Not this time. The Dawn Collective.” Amaterasu said with a grimace.

“Since when have we been at war with them? How long was I out?” Miyo questioned, thoroughly confused.

"The Illum aren't at war with them," Lilly interjected. "Although the Mrrroww are, that's not why we're here. To put it simply, they possess something that belongs to the owner of this ship, and we're here to reclaim it."