It wasn’t exactly words I experienced coming from the black shapes which moved about in the black space beyond the porthole. Not even thought really. More… awareness, curiosity. Even humor. I was surprised something so definably alien could express itself so familiarly.

I’d been surprised before by aliens who seemed radically different than my type of consentient. Something that existed out there couldn’t remotely perceive or think like a run of the mill intergalactic entity. Was it an ascended being? Or even something from the universe the station was tapping into? There was no way of knowing. Since it wasn’t really communicating with me, there was no way I could direct questions.

And before I realized it, it had reached through me, passed me. And I couldn’t stop it any more I could shut down the translator. It was in.

Even when I looked away from the porthole I could sense it was still flowing through my mind, searching, reaching.

The Sfroga had had the porthole cut into the hull. Was it looking for them? Had it made a connection with those flat-faced wide-mouthed amphibianoids? I knew little about them to answer those questions, didn’t have a clue what would happen when it didn’t find a Sfroga mind to connect with.

In the meantime of course there were leaks into my thoughts from Because and Blueneck. So here I was mechanically working on my filtering and dropping into my normal trance while the alien thoughts overhead slowly began to interact. I was thinking, so what, nothing happened before, why should anything happen now.

Now, some species who aren’t so apt at compartmentalizing their brains and patterns of thought again, might have avoided what happened after this. Many species can’t be a master of low level tasks while leaving their higher consciousness to be a conduit for alien thoughts. On the other hand when you have traveled the galaxy as far as I have, that sort of ability becomes, what I have come to expect, something that stops you from simply going crazy.

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There’s just to much weirdness out there to take it all in. So it’s best to let it flow over you. Now, many can’t accomplish that simple task. Some species will use familiarity bacterium to manage the discontinuities. When everything around you looks familiar, then you don’t get so freaked out. But if you want to see the universe, then you have to take a different tact.

Perhaps I should have made a special effort to tell the others what was going on when it happened. The trouble was it didn’t seem like it was going to be too much of a problem. Sure, it was alien, sure it was intelligent, and sure it had access to thoughts and impressions. But it didn’t feel like a threat. It felt reassuring, it felt calming, it felt focusing.

So I felt like I should be getting back to work. I stopped thinking about questions.

We were easing into a familiar wavelength that probably should have concerned me. Perhaps that was its doing – calm me to facilitate its attempts to reach the others. Or maybe its intent never was malign. Best intentions and all. Yeah, I could handle it. Sure, I was sensitive, but that didn’t mean I was vulnerable.

On the other hand, it would soon become apparent both Because’s species and Blueneck’s species didn’t seem to be the types who operate on my level. Up, or down, whatever. They exchanged information on kind of a compulsive level which required the constant reassurance of stimulation. And that need attracted the interest of the dark minds in the Dark Cluster, since I wasn’t possessive enough to keep them in me. Maybe for the first time.

And they interacted and fed each other through the telempathic link. It created a positive feedback loop that spread not only to the two but ultimately to the rest of the network of varied consentients working in the station. I was to soon learn how much they too craved compulsive stimulation. But not in any good way.

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