Saule took in the control room of the Tempered Longing. It was markedly different from any vessel he’d captained before, even the Mad Dash. The previous Glint spaceship hadn’t had a control room like this. Its bridge had harkened back to the ocean-going vessels of the P.O.I The human sense of ergonomics was good but not quite right for a mainly Glint crew. Several things already stood out to him as odd. The spacing between stations was wider than normal, and the stations themselves were proportioned strangely, as if one person had described something and another had drawn it based on their own sense of comfort. There wasn't much difference in size between a tall Glint and an average sized human, but the difference in their leg and back shape was markedly large. The Glint leg was digitigrade and needed plenty of clearance under the seat, the plantigrade humans didn't. The chairs that had been designed for both legs were strange as a result. Not uncomfortable but not comfortable enough.

Saule had watched all the information on human physiology they had available with his head biochemist and recently trained medic, Wensley. They both had taken a brief but intense course from several Human and Glint doctors on potential problems that may arise when dealing with human, glint, or new species, and how to potentially solve them. When the humans had given their information about their bodies, Wensly did not believe they were giving them accurate information. Their spines were a disaster, and their brain system looked like it had been designed by a person as they recovered from a particularly nasty illness of the mind. The human brain seemed to be a series of different brains encapsulating the other, going from small and simple then increasing in size and complexity.

Saule and Wensly had gazed at their instructor incredulously as they asked if this was real, to which the instructor said they should research horses in their free time. Glint physiology was incredibly efficient compared to humans. Their respiratory and digestive tracts didn't overlap, and had a straight load bearing spine with minimal curve towards the back. Glint could be said to be superior to Humans. Except that Humans had much greater strength comparatively, didn't have glowing eyes, could eat a wide variety of foods and could survive multiple wounds that would kill a Glint. Many of the humans that had come to the system during the incident with the Tharg had remarked how much the Glint resembled giant tailless lemurs with burning eyes.

While he mused about those differences he watched his bridge crew putter about and get comfortable in their new stations. Wensly, Stuhkey, and Yors were present along with Naytani, all except Yors were original members of the first crew that had gone to meet Duilim when he had initiated contact with the Glint.

Flik and Duilim had opted to be in the rear compartments in case something needed immediate attention. At least that's what they had told Saule, he knew they wanted to take stock of the engineering deck and start rolling ideas back and forth with each other.

Yors and Stuhkey talked about the new instrumentation the human techs had installed. Meanwhile, Wensly was ear deep in a file a biologist from Sol sent him about their native Fauna, and one of the Sol Guild's attempts to terraform a planet called Venus. Apparently Duilim had facilitated the file transfer and knew the biologist personally. He had said something about them needing a penpal, whatever that was. Saule had also made several requests of the humans. Several files labeled Human Sailing and Boat Design waited in his personal folder along with several videos Duilim had seen fit to add as well. Some media broadcasts called Star Trek, Space Odyssey, and Interstellar.

Saule had glanced at them and hadn't found them very engaging apart from how the humans interacted with each other. They had a more mercurial form of social interactions than Glint did, who viewed everything as a competitor or ally. He was amazed by how easily the humans seemed to trust each other despite their propensity for betrayal, not that he nor another Glint wouldn't do the same. However, they would have been more honest in their betrayal . No lies apart from hiding an advantage for the current goal or letting their strength or talents be hidden. No canopy of intrigue that some humans apparently wove, if the media was an accurate depiction. Which it probably wasn't except as hyperbole of those traits.

Saule flicked his ears to dismiss the thought before he got lost in it; it was time to start the voyage. He rose from the captain’s chair, flipped a switch on his flight suit’s wrist communicator to connect it to the ship-wide comms and spoke.

“Commander Saule to Crew, we are about to leave on a voyage that will take several years to complete at minimum. We have made our preparations and goodbyes, and now the glowing gaze of not just Glint, but also Human eyes are upon us as we head forth to search for more like us. To find answers to why the event that sparked our alliance with Humanity took place, and why the Tharg and Guo’ Saphyrn hate each other so much. No matter what happens or what we find, we will have expanded our view to this new horizon we see now.”

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As Saule spoke, Naytani maneuvered the Tempered Longing out from the docking cradle and away from the Ladder, the orbital station that had made it. As the ship drifted away from the rotating station, small jets halted its spin after it pirouetted about the nose of the ship like a top. The maneuver ended with the Longing pointed out to the ink black space beyond the Torc Star system. As Saule said the word horizon, Naytani triggered their faster than light drive; something humans called an Advanced Alcubierre Drive. The two rings that encircled the ship hummed as an inordinate amount of power flowed through them, warping space in a bubble around them and the ship. The light from the Glint homeworld Plinth distorted like grease stains over water, then drained away as the universe moved the pebble of altered space with the Tempered Longing forward.

Saule gazed at the void as familiar stars fled to the rear of the sphere of warped space that ensconced the ship. Black soon replaced the stars but for one point of white light that was in the direction of their course, nothing else could be seen.

"Naytani, I know we've done this before but why is there only one source of light?" he asked.

Naytani responded without turning her own gaze away from the point of light, "Because of the space bubble all light that doesn't hit the envelope head on will be bent around the ship, and some other sources of light that we wouldn't ordinarily be seeing from that angle get bent in as well."

“Well what’s stopping light from coming in at other angles?”

Her eyes flared brightly as she squinted, opened her mouth, shut it, then said, “I don’t know...”

Saule frowned at that, "Maybe we should look into it. It seems a little strange that only light coming from the direction we are heading in is able to be seen from inside. Regardless, is this it, do we do anything else?"

"No Commander, until we reach our destination we wait. We all have some tests to perform while inside this pocket and I believe Duilim wanted to speak with you," Naytani responded, "It's not going to be like the fictions with instant travel, it's going to be several weeks before we arrive at Sol."

“Yes, it’ll be a good time to practice some drills on the ship rather than in a re-creation.” said Saule.

The bridge crew collectively groaned at that.

"Why do we even have half of these drills? I know you know Duilim got most of those scenarios from fiction." Stuhkey whined.

Saule replied "I'm the Commander and we did next to nothing when the Tharg and Jeweller captured us. We had to be rescued by the humans and only succeeded in blowing our ship up and nearly killing ourselves. Even if these training sessions are based on impossible things, they'll still prepare us for what is possible, or even likely." He then shrugged and admitted, "Besides I think they're a good team building exercise and fun."

"You have to be pulling my ear…"

———Tempered Longing, engineering section ———

Flik Haybur and E.K. Duilim sat around a workbench that was abhorrently clean in its newness. Apparently both Human and Glint didn't like to see somethings that should show marks of use being so unmarred. As a result Stuhkey's portable measuring device for different wave frequencies lay in partial deconstruction between them. For the time being though it was forgotten as the younger Flik grew curious about Duilim's body.

"So you used to be flesh and blood, then died and became a spaceship?" asked a small tan coloured Glint.

"Well yes but there's more to it than that Flik," replied Duilim.

Duilim continued while he absentmindedly inspected a fluid filled capsule, "I had volunteered for the research but I didn't die as soon as they scanned me. They tooks scans over several years then many years after the last scan continued to assemble a psyche based off of those scans."

"That's interesting, how many scans di- Wait! They didn't scan you near death? So you, the you before now, lived after the scans?" Flik asked.

"Yes. I ah, he lived for another twenty years until he died of a heart attack."

"How do you deal with that? You, he died before you were turned online?" she probed, her eyes intense in their glowing interest but her face and ears belied concern.

Duilim set down the part and turned his head towards her, "It's difficult. Part of being among the first people to ever go through that is we had to experiment with different ways to stay level headed and not go catatonic with horror. Elijah Duilim was not me and the Elijah you met around Gri'oux was not me as well. I have their memories but I won't, can't, let myself think I am the same person they were."

Flik thought for a moment then asked timidly, “Why not?”

Duilim wringed his hands as he spoke, “I don’t know if I have a soul, or even if souls exist. Do Glint have a concept of a soul? I'm not sure if that's the right word, spirit, ego after death or something like that?"

"Something similar in nature but I'm not sure it's the same. We believe our ego goes to those we care about, our true team and crew and empowers them with our essence, even slightly," she replied, breaking eye contact has her eyes dimmed in thought, "It's complicated and with finding out we're an engineered race many people are questioning if our religion was manufactured as well."